Lakeview, Malverne and West Hempstead: A year in review

There is an anonymous quote that, in its very simplicity, captures the complexity life: "If nothing ever changed, we'd have no butterflies."

Many things have changed throughout the last year. The residents of Lakeview, Malverne and West Hempstead have mourned and rejoiced, cried and laughed, changed and grown, but also stayed the same in many ways, primarily by holding steadfastly to the essence of who they are as individuals and as whole communities.

• The Herald has compiled some of these events in its Year in Review issue. Click here to read more.

Lakeview experienced the birth of the Save Our Sons Network, an organization devoted to inspiring men and helping boys develop in body, mind and heart. Malverne experienced great tragedy with the death of the late Deputy Mayor James Callahan, but regained strength by watching his widow, Patricia, live on. West Hempstead saw the fall of the Courtesy Hotel, a delicious sight to eyes starved for years, waiting to finally win a hard-fought battle.

There were many celebratory events and installations — the legalization of same-sex marriage in New York, a new supermarket in Malverne, two firsts for the Lakeview Fire Department, which elected an Orthodox Jew as chief and a woman as assistant chief, the developing renovation of the Lakewood Stables in West Hempstead — and many difficult times that included racial tensions, lawsuits, disasters and deaths.