Avalon may lose its ‘Monstrosity’ | Morning Newsletter

Good morning. Tuesday should be mostly sunny and the high will be 61.

The days are numbered for the “Monstrosity” house in a popular Jersey Shore resort town.

And columnist Helen Ubiñas details her experience visiting with a group of grieving mothers at a new memorial that she says provided some much-needed perspective about coping with pain — and holding on to hope.

Read on for these and more of today’s top stories.

— Paola Pérez (morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)

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This is the Monstrosity. The property with a wraparound porch and large sundeck is well-known to the Avalon community. Its name is a loving reference to complaints about rowdy youths that gathered there in the 1950s.

This summer, the owners put out calls on social media, hoping to find a sympathetic buyer who would preserve the home, first built in 1891. With no luck, they decided to go with an offer from a local developer.

Bob Penrose Jr., the oldest of eight siblings who own the property and president of Avalon’s historical society, believes that developer will knock it down.

Notable quote: “That’s life,” Penrose said. “You win some, you lose some.”

Michaelle Bond has details on the sale and more from the Penrose family.

🎤 Now I’m passing the mic to columnist Helen Ubiñas.

The Moms Bonded By Grief Botanical Garden of Healing is officially open.

The rectangular patch of donated space memorializing Philadelphians lost to gun violence stands at the corner of 51st Street and Woodland Avenue, an intersection of grief and hope.

I wrote about the garden’s groundbreaking last year. Last week, I went back — a few days before the group held its official grand opening on Saturday — to see the yearslong dream finally realized.

And I made a second visit for another — perhaps slightly selfish — reason.

Mr. Rogers famously said, “Look for the helpers.” But if he’d been around to witness Election Day this year, he might have said, “Look for the grievers.”

Since the Cheeto-in-Chief somehow stormed back into the White House, I’ve been drawn to people who know what it means to withstand waves of overwhelming emotions — sadness, anger, confusion, fear — and to still search for tiny rays of hope. Can’t we all use guidance on how to find our way through a world that feels like it is lurching toward something terrible?

And no one in our wounded city has been forced to simultaneously hold those two emotions — anguish about our present and faith in our future — more than families of gun violence victims. — Helen Ubiñas

Continue reading to visit the Moms Bonded by Grief Garden of Healing.

Top tier Philly baker Lily Fischer has made a birthday cake — twice — for which superstar?

A) Rihanna

B) Taylor Swift

C) Ariana Grande

D) Beyoncé

Think you know? Check your answer.

✈️ Explaining: What Spirit Airlines filing for bankruptcy means for traveling.

🦉 Weighing: Temple’s options for a new football coach — or if it should scrap its program altogether.

🔬 Congratulating: A Penn student who was awarded a scholarship to continue cancer research.

Hint: The world-renowned symphony that calls the Kimmel Center home

ALDRICH HIALEAH STOPPER

Email us if you know the answer. We’ll select a reader at random to shout out here.

Cheers to Sadie Kenyon-Dean who solved Monday’s anagram: Boyz II Men. A biopic has been announced to chronicle the story of Philly’s own four-time Grammy-winning ensemble.

👋🏽 Thanks for spending some time with The Inquirer this morning. Take care.

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