< Back Mary Ann's Story, Fall 2025 Mary Ann reflects on a life shaped by early loss and resilience, following the sudden death of her father, which forced her family to quickly adapt and develop survival skills. A pivotal moment came when her future husband encouraged her to pursue a long-held but unimagined dream of becoming a doctor. Today, she looks back on a rich, unexpected life filled with family, professional accomplishments, and personal fulfillment, appreciating the support and opportunities that helped shape her journey. 00:00 / 04:13 When I was growing up as a child, I really didn't have any idea of what my life was going to be like; I really didn't imagine that. My family didn't have a lot of money, and there was no family business or, you know, career pathway that I might have been expected to follow. No one was really asking me what I was going to be when I grew up. But, um, I think what really sort of derailed any thoughts that I might have had about my future life was my father dying suddenly several days after his 48th birthday. His death was certainly nothing my mother, my younger brother, and I were prepared for. Uh, there was no money, and my mother had never learned to drive, so the next few years, we were learning survival skills, including driving lessons for me and for my mother. And then my mother went back to work as a nurse, although she hadn't done any nursing for over 16 years. Um, so my main task, though, was applying for colleges that would offer me full scholarships. So, I've been a good student, and I was very fortunate that I ended up going to Brown University on a scholarship. Um, during the summers, I worked as a waitress, which is where I first met Ralph, who eventually became my husband. During college, it was sort of like, let's get through four years and then figure out what we're going to do. Um, teaching seem to be a good thing, and I thought I could probably do that pretty well. So, I ended up getting a full scholarship at Yale, and I did a Master of Arts in Teaching there, and I trained to be a biology teacher. And then my very first job ended up being here in Massachusetts, in Brookline, at a public school that was very progressive and very innovative. So, Ralph and I stayed in touch during our college years, and when he was in Senegal, in West Africa, in the Peace Corps. Um, so when he came back to the US, we reconnected, we fell in love, we got engaged, and married. And then we started our life together on Long Island, and we were both teaching there. So one day, we were coming back from a weekend ski trip, someplace up in Vermont, and I was complaining about getting bored grading 125 biology lab reports every week. So, Ralph said, “Is there something else you like to do?” So, I told him, “I would like to be a doctor,” and he said, “Well, why don't you do it?” Um, I really didn't expect that at all because as a kid and a teenager, even though I spent time in hospitals, um, I had never really wanted to be a nurse. But, becoming a doctor was something that I had never even dared, um, imagine. So, I wouldn't have gone any further without Ralph’s support. So, I went to medical school at New York Medical College. Later on, I became a pulmonologist and then a radiation oncologist, and I worked at several medical centers on Long Island. And then I received a job offer here in Springfield. So, I worked in Springfield for 27 years, and then I retired from medicine around nine years ago. So, when I think about my life growing up, becoming a doctor was something I never could have imagined as a child. Um, it definitely wouldn't have happened without Ralph’s support, and his willingness to go where I wanted to be or where my work required has been a gift that really exceeds any value. Um, I could never growing up, I could never imagine having a husband, a daughter, a son-in-law, and now we have a wonderful grandson named Avery who just turned two years old a couple of weeks ago. So, um, I've gotten to have a very rich, complicated life that I never could have imagined at 5 years old or at 16 or 25 or 30 or 75, and now, after 80 years, um, it’s still amazing me now. Previous Next

< Back Bert's Story, Fall 2022 Bert speaks about her life journey and how not everything went as she planned. She talks about her adventures with her husband and kids and how she found her way to her career as a Speech Language Pathologist and how that career changed her view on life. 00:00 / 03:33 It seems to me that lots of people have kind of a plan in their life of what they would like to do, and they set about doing it. I never had such a plan. I was kind of a vague wanderer among libraries and was really interested in English literature and English history and studied for a bit in England for a little while and I didn’t have a glamour of what I wanted to do with my life. It seemed like it would be good to be useful, but I didn’t have much other plan than that. I got married shortly after college and we had a child and then because I had been an only child pretty much in my life, I thought we don’t want this child to be all alone we should have another one pretty soon. And it turned out that that one turned out to be twins. And suddenly wooo, I had three babies, they were less than two years of age, and I was supposed to figure out what to do with them and I had to stop wandering around wondering what book I was gonna read next. So, it was a pretty hectic and transformative time for me. I had to think of myself as a very different person, responsible for these three little babies and then three wild little boys and I started to sort of become somewhat more assertive I think. I had never been before. After being at home for quite some time with them I thought I really gotta get out of here a little bit and I saw a notice that Children’s Hospital School for Kids with Hearing Loss was looking for some volunteers and I thought well I could probably do that. And I arranged for a baysitter and went down and helped out mainly in an art class with kids with severe hearing losses and they were very interesting. But the director of the program kept saying you gotta go to graduate school. And so after a year of so of prompting I did start a graduate program in speech language at Catholic University. A friend from graduate school who was a little bit ahead of me called and said Bert I’m working at this great school you’ve gotta come and work here with me. It’s a school for preschool children, very young children, with a variety of pretty serious physical and neurological problems and they need another therapist. Okay, here I am. It turned out to be wonderful. The schools had a wonderful transdisciplinary approach so that instead of passing kids around from therapist to therapist or teacher to teacher or whatever, we were in teams. The parents, teachers, physical therapists, the occupational therapist, speech language therapist, we were in a team and we all had to understand what everybody else’s goals were for this child so that anytime you interacted with them whether you were changing a diaper or you were helping somebody have lunch, or you were playing together all of those goals had to be integrated. It was an incredible learning experience and it taught me way more than any course ever could ever have taught me. I never imagined so many interesting, challenging situations just kept unfolding one after another and with the enormous good fortune of always having very good people to work with, not a lot of money but a lot of really good, strong coworkers. I feel very fortunate in my unplanned, kind of wandering way. Previous Next

Caleigh's Story Caleigh reflects on the importance of becoming a role model for her five-year-old niece, Natalie. Being there for her as she grows up is something extremely important to Caleigh. Scroll to Listen Caleigh's Story 00:00 / 02:37 Caleigh: I just love stories in general anyways because it makes people who maybe would have never interacted realize their shared humanities. I just want say a story that I heard in class—It was a story in class about a young man who welcomed a little brother into his world, and he realized that this world was no longer about him and he wasn’t just a big brother, he was a role a model. Everything he accomplished and everything he strived for wasn’t only for himself but to set a good example for his brother. When I read that story in class it made me think of my five-year-old niece, Natalie, and we are very close. She’s my whole world, I love her so much. After reading that story, I took a step back and I was like, “who am I as an auntie and how does she see me?” She looks up to me, she mimics me, she wants to be just like me, she always wants to spend time with me, and it made me think about what kind of person do I want her looking up to? I am no longer just an auntie, but I am setting a good example for her. I want to show her that she is capable of anything she sets her mind to. I am the first one in my family to go to college and I would love to be a role model for her to see, you know, auntie goes to college, and I can do it and I want to be just like her. And through just reading that story of the man—the boy—who welcomed his brother in the world, it just connected me and him and we’ve never met. I hope that everything that I’ve learned in my 20 and a half years—today is my half birthday—I want to share those experiences with her so that she doesn’t make some of the mistakes that I’ve made, but also that she can follow in my footsteps because I feel like I am a great role model for her. That’s—you know—I have two older brothers. I never really had a female role model, other than my mom, someone that was closer to my age, so in a way we are so close, and I’ve been with her since she was in the womb.

< Back Naomi's Story Naomi talks about her experiences growing up and about how these experiences shaped her approach to parenting and helped her understand what she truly values in her relationships. Scroll to listen 00:00 / 03:16 Previous Next

Edie Kirk shares stories with Elise Boehm about her mother. She starts off by talking about her family’s background and her mother growing up. She then shares a story about how her mother became a nurse and shares other stories that show why she admires her mother so much. Edie's Story Edie Kirk shares stories with Elise Boehm about her mother. She starts off by talking about her family’s background and her mother growing up. She then shares a story about how her mother became a nurse and shares other stories that show why she admires her mother so much. Scroll to listen Edie's Story 00:00 / 04:18

Susan Martins (77) talks with a friend, Catherine Grella (21) about her travels to Italy and Israel in her early 20s, which she considers the highlight of her entire life. Susan's Story Susan Martins (77) talks with a friend, Catherine Grella (21) about her travels to Italy and Israel in her early 20s, which she considers the highlight of her entire life. Scroll to listen Susan's Story 00:00 / 03:08 Well, I'd always wanted to travel and I always wanted to go to Italy, and I had $2,000, but this was in 1969, and $2,000 went a lot farther in those days. And I found a little pencion which was in a perfect location. It was a block from the Arno, but it was in a very great place. It was like the best place to be in Florence, and I just explored Florence while I was there. I had never really thought about going to Israel because while I was born Jewish, I really didn't know anything about Israel except while I was living there. I read a book by Bruno Bettelheim, a psychologist, and it was about the Kabutz system in Israel, and I found it fascinating. And I felt like I wanted to go there. And in about January, I guess, I went to Israel. This was weird. It was the middle of the night when the plane landed in the airport in Tel Aviv, and I was sitting there waiting because the shuttle buses didn't go in to tell of the evening till six or seven in the morning. So I was just sitting, waiting. This plane came in and this bunch of people got off the plane and they started bending down and kissing the street. And then they came into the airport. They couldn't believe that they were there, and they were kissing the floor in the airport. And it turned out that they were Polish Jews who had survived the Holocaust. They were immigrating to Israel and they'd never been there before. And they walked in and to them it was coming home. At that time, I didn't know where I was going, but I knew I wanted to go to a Kabutz. And there's an office in Tel Aviv that sends volunteers from all over the world to volunteer on a Kabutz. And you work in the fields, or I worked in the laundry, ironing pants for months, but I also worked in the grapefruit fields, and I worked pruning plum trees at one point, and one point they assigned me this Kabutz, had a fruit stand on the road that the Kabutz was up the hill from. They put me there to work because a lot of tourists spoke English. Somebody said, are you Israeli? And I said, no, I'm American. And they said, you look as if you were born here. You look just like an Israeli, and it's wonderful to meet you. And I felt like I had come home, and I felt as if it was my country. That was the weird thing that I had never thought about Israel. I didn't really feel like a Jewish person, but I felt as if that was where I was from and it was really power.

< Back Nancy's Story After our mother died suddenly (due to complications of a childhood disease), our introverted father stepped in to raise three daughters (ages 14, 11, and 7) in the New Jersey suburbs. He was at work in Manhattan all day, but he ran a tight ship from afar. His steadfast devotion to us and his love of Broadway shows, the Great American Songbook, and American literature continues to supply me with uplifting lyrics, music, and other cultural touchstones. 00:00 / 04:01 Previous Next

< Back Jonathan's Story, 2024 00:00 / 04:23 Previous Next

Mary Young describes, in an interview with Hellen Muma, the cast-off treasures she discovered as a kid—and how those experiences turned her into a life-long collector. She shares a lesson learned from Louis Armstrong’s white handkerchief and remembers a great-aunt who influenced her with the gift of a corrugated gift box. Mary's Story Mary Young describes, in an interview with Hellen Muma, the cast-off treasures she discovered as a kid—and how those experiences turned her into a life-long collector. She shares a lesson learned from Louis Armstrong’s white handkerchief and remembers a great-aunt who influenced her with the gift of a corrugated gift box. Scroll to listen Mary's Story 00:00 / 02:19 So, I know you have a lot of collections, and you keep creating new ones. What are some examples and what made you become a collector? I remember really clearly we lived in a sorta like actually my father taught in a boys boarding school so we lived in a dorm and you would take ethe trash all the way down to the basement to put it in these bins and I was old enough to take the trash down I guess for my mother So i as taking the trash down I went down to the trash room and I saw all this stuff and there was an older couple who worked was on the faculty and they were downsizing and they had piles of stuff and I was immediately really interested in it that was my earliest memory of finding extraordinary things in the trash and I’ve never stopped ever since When I was going through my paternal grandmothers stuff Among all the other stuff I found was a box of buttons I mean some of them were really old some go back to the 19th century and some buttons from when my grandmother during world war 2 was a part of the red cross ambulance driver corps ya know outside of Boston she didn't drive ambulances really but for some reason these women trained for that there were just and there were buttons they came from all different types of people now just women but mostly women the family and ya know from generations of all different people and I think I was already collecting antique buttons and I kind of dumped everything together and I would come up with some buttons from my mother and I’d put those in there and to me it's like this ocean of family history particularly for me of women history and it just is like it all flowed together into this soup and i just love that ya know I have made some things with the buttons like I've decorated some pillows with them I was thinking of framing some maybe I'll do it maybe I won't It's such an immediate connection to generations of women and its different as if I just got something from a tag sale cause this actually had to do something with people in my family who knows what but that's one example of potentially thousands I can tell

< Back Kathleen's Story 00:00 / 04:16 Yeah. So, Sarah's my second child. And, and I feel like just to bring her into the world, when I was pregnant, I actually knew who she was. You know, I remember thinking if they say, oh, you have a little boy, I would have said, no. That's Sarah. She was named and all before she came. It's my grandmother's name. So, I knew her, and I expected her. So, she came out as Sarah, and she has been, just a little one who has been on her own. So, she had her own way of doing things. And she occasionally would look back at me, but she knew where she wanted to go all her life. She had a she had a path and she was easily stepping into new things. She was 16. She had a boyfriend. And of course, I wasn't really happy with him. He was a year older than her, and he was like this wild guy. And I thought, not for my sweet little one. I wasn't real supportive of that, but, and turns out, he is just the best person ever to be in our family. So, they ended up getting married. Sarah actually wore my mother's wedding dress. So, she continued with that tradition of a traditional wedding dress. At their at their wedding, they honored my parents. It was their fiftieth wedding anniversary. So, it was just, just such proud moments that she has created, and she created her wedding. I made, I crocheted this netting that went over an arch, and it had silk leaves on it because she wanted to be she loved being in the woods and the forest, and she wanted to have an autumn wedding, but she was married in April. So, this kind of gave that gesture of her being married in the forest. And that was just, yeah, just lovely to offer to her. And so, they got married and lived in the same town we did. She, yeah, she doesn't knock on my door very much saying, mom, this is what I'm doing, or she doesn't she has a lovely relationship with her husband. Yeah. She didn't come to me for problems or things like that. So, they decided they wanted to move away, and they went to all different places in the country. And it just didn't feel right. So, I knew about North Hampton, and I found this Airbnb, and I gave them this gift of coming up for the weekend to check it out, and they loved it. So, they moved up here and started their life. And after two years, I would come up and stay with them, you know, for the weekend. And that was so lovely to live with someone rather than just visit. So, to spend a little time with them and see their world. Yeah. And after two years, they said, why don't you and why don't you and dad come up? Just move up here. So, I'm a smart mama. And when my daughter asked me to go somewhere, I do it. So, we figured out how to do it. So, we came up. We moved up here and continued to, to do our work. And we came and they found a house and we're three blocks from them. And the wonderful thing about that is eventually, Sarah's forty four now, they eventually, had a little a little boy who is a foster boy that they, that they had at three months old, and then they adopted him. And so, we came into this as a family. So now I'm a granny, and the best thing about being a granny is she drops him off, and I get to see my daughter, and we get to chat. And then she picks him up, and we get to chat some more. But my real conversation comes from her husband who tells me every single thing that's going on Previous Next

< Back Bob's Story, 2024 Bob shares the challenges he faced in high school and how he discovered his passion for the arts, which changed his life direction. 00:00 / 04:23 Did you have any moments in high school that changed the way you saw yourself and or how others saw you? Yeah. I sure did. And, that's one of the reasons I feel like we, you know, we found a, you know, a beginning of a shared, you know, experience in our relationship. So, I'll do a little bit like what you did, a little history. Yeah. So around 13, you know, so a little bit before high school, I always tell people the same image. I felt like a brown burlap sack was pulled over my head. You know? Like, the world became fuzzy, and there was a little bit of light, but it wasn't clear. It was really hard and confusing for me, and my experience in high school is very similar. I saw myself as incredibly shy. I was very, very anxious. I didn't go through a period of not going to school because my parents would let me do that, period. I was getting up, and I was going to school, and that's all there was to it. I was very alone in school. I could probably pick out one or two names from my high school experience that were became friends, but I didn't have real friends. Then I didn't socialize. I didn't date. I didn't hang out with people. I didn't go to parties at school. I also had an eating disorder at that time. So, you know, when I was, I couldn't even eat in front of other people. I'd go to the cafeteria because they need me. It wasn't till I think I think junior or senior year, they allowed us to stay in our class or our homeroom during lunch. We didn't have to go. The way I saw myself is someone that was very anxious, very alone, really confused about that whole thing about the burlap bag. Just didn't I couldn't interreact react interact with people in a way that I would like to. I mean, I did some stuff. I was, you know, got on the high school newspaper, but that was very cerebral. You know, if you've gotten to know me, I'm a people person, but I sure wasn't then. And then I was lucky enough. What happened to me, the experience that began to change that for me was in the first semester of my junior year. We were required in my high school to take public speaking. It was a required class. The assignment was a humorous speech. I guess I saw myself in my head as funny. I don't know if I am funny, but and so I really dug. This project somehow spoke to me. I got up. We were allowed to hold the material. It wasn't memorized. Somewhere early in the speech, I began to notice this amazing thing was happening was that people the the other kids in the audience, the other students were laughing like crazy. I mean, they were falling on the floor, and the teacher was laughing. And it gave me this incredible sense of power. I'm really, I think that's the right word. This incredible sense that I had something in me that, I didn't really realize, that I could be really funny, that I could entertain other people, that this person that was super quiet and hiding in the corner all of the time and not even eating in front of other people could begin to change that. Right? And, it really did have this profound effect on me. This same teacher directed a a play the second semester called the Thurber Carnival, and it worked. She said, why don't you come try out? You're really funny, and it would be great. So I came and I tried it out, and she cast me. And, so here I am up in front of an audience of, you know, 800 or a thousand people, all of a sudden, this super shy person. And all of a sudden, I had this whole experience around the arts, which actually became my passion late in life. But what was important about it was it gave me the sense of myself in a different way. So, it was a beginning. It wasn't the end. Like you said, you had a long way to go Yeah. After that And for me, I had a long way to go too. I was still super shocked. And I also I guess I discovered that being you know, you didn't touch on this as much, but on your family, but being away from my crazy family allowed me to really grow more. I came to UMass like you did. And when I came back for the first break at intersession, my parents didn't know who I was. They said, what happened? I had grown into this other person. For me, the high school that that experience of that classroom began to change my whole life, my inner sense of who I was and what I was capable of. Previous Next

Listen to stories from Spring 2022. Aidan's Story Aidan talks with Barbara about his family heritage and shares the meaning of his tattoos and their connection to his family. Listen Amy's Story Amy shares about moving from NYC to Philadelphia as a young girl. During this time, she learned some of the hard lessons about hatred and what it means to stand out. She also learned that some of her closets friends are the ones who have the most differences between them. Listen Barbara L's Story Barbara discusses the important friendships that she has maintained in her life, and how over a lifetime of working in film and theatre, she has maintained these relationships while also achieving her dreams of working on set. Listen Barbara S's Story Barbara shares her story of becoming the owner of a bookstore, specializing in antique books. She shares memories from these years including her knowledge of books. Listen Bert's Story Roberta Liebman shares with Alisson Aleman the remarkable role that neighborhood organizations have played in some of the most significant moments of her life. They have provided her and her family with support and companionship through some of the most challenging moments. Listen Betty's Story Betty talks about her gratitude and appreciation for the support she has received during hard times in her life. Listen Marci's Story Listen Camille's Story Camille details her relationship with her siblings and the importance that they play in her life and how they have helped her get through her toughest challenges. Listen Catherine's Story Catherine Grella (21) talks with a friend, Susan Martins (77) about her close relationship with her two sisters, her childhood, and the family dynamics that have shaped her into the woman that she is today. Listen Dennis's Story In his story, Dennis Bidwell guides us through his harrowing journey applying for Conscientious Objector (CO) Status during the Vietnam War. Dennis reflect on his coming of age, the culture of the 1960's and 70's, and his experience writing "the most important essay of [his] life" Listen Edie's Story Edie Kirk shares stories with Elise Boehm about her mother. She starts off by talking about her family’s background and her mother growing up. She then shares a story about how her mother became a nurse and shares other stories that show why she admires her mother so much. Listen Elise's Story Elise Boehm talks to Edie Kirk about her decision to study abroad in Cuba and what it was like once she got there. She shares stories about where she went and what she did but also how the people there made her feel more confident speaking Spanish. Listen Hellen's Story Hellen describes the way her house represents Africa from the mustard-yellow color on the outside to the smell on the inside and the white lace sheets over the doors. Her parents incorporate many pieces of Kenya with them in their home in the US, and continue many traditions from their past. Listen Jonathan's Story Jonathan Daube (Northampton, MA) speaks with Selena DeCosta (Easton/Amherst, MA) about his time spent teaching in Malawi and how it shaped his view of the world for the rest of his life. Listen MJ's Story In this interview, Mary Jo discusses her experience with assistive technology like a cochlear impact and electronic captioning. She describes her journey and how sudden hearing loss has influenced her as an individual, her relationships and her outlook on life. She leaves us with a powerful message about the importance of advocating for ourselves and others. Listen Mary's Story Mary Young describes, in an interview with Hellen Muma, the cast-off treasures she discovered as a kid—and how those experiences turned her into a life-long collector. She shares a lesson learned from Louis Armstrong’s white handkerchief and remembers a great-aunt who influenced her with the gift of a corrugated gift box. Listen Marylou's Story Marylou Davis (76) talks with her granddaughter, Abigail Horan (21) about the pivotal moments in her life which sculpted the path to the life she has today. In the interview, Marylou discusses how moving from Florida back to Massachusetts where she originally lived was a tough decision, but ultimately worked out in the end because of the relationships she fostered once arriving back. Listen Ngozi's Story Ngozi Okeke talks to Tamar Shadur about traveling to Nigeria, dad's special pancakes, and how she would like to be remembered Listen Nikki's Story Nikki describes her travels to Manzanillo Cuba where she and her fellow volunteers created and conducted a Kids Camp for the children of Manzanillo and its surrounding villages. She expresses the importance of perspective taking, treating others with compassion and understanding the true impact one seemingly small act can have on the lives of others. Listen Liya's Story Liya Liang speaks with Nina Kleinberg about her experiences attending a preparatory boarding school and leaving all she knew behind. The two discuss the effects that it had on her life reflecting on the aspects of race, class, and socioeconomic status had on her experience during her four years. Listen Nina's Story Nina Kleinberg tells Liya Liang the story about the moment she decided to leave her home and STEM education to pursue an education and career in film on the other side of the country Listen Samantha's Story Samantha talks about her childhood and her appreciation for her Jewish heritage and her understanding of her family history and how it shaped her experiences through life and helped her to face her toughest challenges. Listen Sasha's Story Sasha talks about her relationship with her Aunt and how she inspired her to be strong, powerful, and resilient and to appreciate the values that they share. Listen Savannah's Story Savannah speaks with Dennis about her experience living and working in Washington, DC the summer after her freshman year of college. Savannah discusses her determination to experience somewhere new, and how she was able to make it happen for herself. In her story, she touches on themes of loneliness, independence, family and friendship. Savannah reminds us that while independence is a virtue, we can all use some support to get where we're going. Listen Selena's Story Selena speaks with Jonathan about what it’s like to be living with a family whose views are very different from your own during a global pandemic. Listen Susan's Story Susan Martins (77) talks with a friend, Catherine Grella (21) about her travels to Italy and Israel in her early 20s, which she considers the highlight of her entire life. Listen Grazy's Story Grazy discusses how her family's immigration to the United States impacted her upbringing and her values and experiences in the U.S. Listen Sean's Story Sean talks to his match about the differences between them and their values caused by the differences in their cultures and generations. He also discusses the impact of American values and how media and modern technology play a role in individualism. Listen Katherine's Story Katherine talks about her family heritage and values and how that impacted her views on the world. She discusses how her upbringing and playing music with her siblings brings them closer together. Katherine also details how the values that she was raised with are still instilled in her and are instilled in her children as well. Listen Gail's Story Gail, an elementary school teacher, talks about how her sister impacted her life and encouraged her to advocate for children with disabilities in her classroom and beyond. Listen Sofie's Story Sofie talks about her experience being diagnosed with diabetes at the age of 12 and how it affected her and her family. She discusses how it inspired her to pursue her future career and the importance of empathy in the medical field. Listen Liam's Story Liam talks about a scene in the movie Tampopo and discusses the differences in how people consume media and how media can be interpreted differently depending on the viewer. Listen Susy's Story Susy talks about her want for a child and how it led her to her experience with international adoption in Peru as a single woman. She discussed the impact of negative cultural views on adoption and how it impacted her experience as a parent. She then discusses the importance of belonging and the need for people to share their stories. Listen Hannah's Story Hannah talks about the risk that she took in studying abroad in Amsterdam and her experience amercing herself in the culture by herself and how it impacted her future career path. Listen Tamar's Story Tamar Shadur talks to Ngozi Okeke about how she would like to be remembered through the different ways in which she lived her life. She discusses her artistic passion for tapestry weaving and how it became a lifelong career. She was able to emphasize the different themes that have come out in her work and how she and her Mother have worked together to produce meaningful pieces. Listen Spring 2022 Stories If you'd like to listen to a story, click the "Listen" button.