Smith: It’s not every day that an old friend becomes a saint

Mother Teresa is almost like family to Tony Prendusi, a retired restaurateur famed for long ago creating the county's first sidewalk dining at his La Fontana restaurant on the west side of Old Courthouse Square.

It was life-altering when, in 1967, Tony read in Look magazine about the nun who ministered to the poorest of the poor in India and who, like himself, was from Albania.

He recalls thinking, “Oh, I want to help her.” He went to great lengths to meet Mother Teresa and contribute to her mission.

Now 86, Tony counts that connection among the greatest blessings of his life.

So nothing will keep him from being at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 25 for a special Mass anticipating the canonization of Blessed Mother Teresa by Pope Francis.

And Friday, Tony will fly to Rome to be in place for the Sept. 4 bestowal of sainthood.

Father Denis O'Sullivan of St. Rose said the Mass in Santa Rosa might have been scheduled for a bit closer to the fourth, but he knows how much Tony wants to mark the canonization of the future St. Teresa here, at the Vatican and in his homeland.

For Tony and many sons and daughters of Albania, especially those who are Catholic, this is one of the greatest things to happen since the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Mother Teresa in 1979.

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IN GUALALA, on Highway 1 just across the Sonoma-Mendocino county line, the highly literate community is celebrating something highly unusual: the rescue of the hamlet's nearly 13-year-old bookstore by a group of neighbors who became stockholders of the store, Four-Eyed Frog Books, as owner Joel Crockett feared he would have to shut it down for lack of a conventional buyer.

The Frog, as it's affectionately known, is now a community-owned bookstore with about two dozen stockholders, a board of directors and a single employee aided by a crew of volunteers. It's a well-earned source of pride that Gualala decided it would not let The Frog croak.

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ANIMALS SUFFER following the horrific fire in and around Lower Lake, but money for extensive veterinary care isn't coming in at all like it did after last year's Valley fire.

Pam Ingalls of Wine Country Animal Lovers figures that several tens of thousands of dollars will be needed to help cover the costs incurred by the five veterinary clinics that have taken in dogs, cats and other animals burned in the Clayton fire.

Donations can be made at winecountryanimallovers.org.

Ingalls said the masters of some of the pets lost their homes and right now only wish they could afford a vet bill.

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YOU LIKE BASEBALL, but have you caught a game in every major league ballpark in America?

Boyish but quasi-retired Santa Rosa oral surgeon Jack Tolin and his daughter, Shauna, have checked off the last one - for the time being - with their visit to Marlins Park in Miami.

“This took us 15 years,” shares Jack, who's freshly 70. There are 30 active MLB ballparks today but he and Shauna, 31, went to 35 because some old parks gave way to new ones.

The pair's road game isn't over. Says Jack, “Next year Atlanta is building a new stadium, so we'll have to go back there.”

Chris Smith is at 707-521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.