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< Back Rene's Story Rene explains how she feels being the eldest sister of her siblings. She talks through how an experience with her brother brought their relationship together. Scroll to listen 00:00 / 03:59 So my first question is what was your role as the eldest self out eldest sister? Well, I'm the oldest of four. And let's see, I have a sister who's two and a half younger, two and a half years, three years younger than I am. And then another. I had a brother and a sister seven years younger than I am. So we were the girls and twins. That's what we refer to as we were growing up. It was wonderful. It's really a position of privilege. And it's also burden. It was also burdensome. I was a lot was expected of me in terms of helping my mom take care of the other three, she was a woman who was viewed as sickly, and I was capable, and I was smart. And I was willing, because I just wanted those parents to walk me into an audit to get me what I wanted to care those kids in January of 2019, my brother, her twin died, my brother died, he had cancer. And for the last three months of his life, the three sisters we're very close family, almost too close. Sometimes we were almost too close sometimes. My three sisters and I went to Florida and took care of him in his in his medical needs were complicated. And three of us just took on what we were best at. My sister Joanne, the youngest one, his twin is good at organizing shows, she would organize things. And everything was very organized. The medications were organized, our schedules were organized. My sister Marina who loves loves, loves animals. She's such a tender hearted woman. Well, my brother had 180 pound English master. And the dog ate only raw food because my brother was very fussy about what his dogs eat. And Marina, we prepare my sister is two and a half years younger, she would really take care of moose ducks name was moose. And she would feed him and make sure he was water bowls. I mean, Moose was a lot of work. It was like having another child and did things that were more around the emotional caretaking of my brother and made sure that every time he left his bed and came out into the main area, and he had this television screen, which was like, like a sports bar television screen, it was huge. And he would come and sit on the couch and blare it out. And I made sure that every time he came out and sat down, loose was on one side of him in a sister, any one of us, no matter what was going on, one of us had to be sitting next to him, like holding his hand or leaning up against what I leaned up against him. I really wanted him to feel and know our presence and our love was very, very moving. It was such a gift to be with him at the end such a gift and in many ways it both is in a funny way it bonded us the three sisters. It bonded us in a way nothing else could have done. And it also gave us some freedom from each other because I grew up in this enmeshed family, family that just to leave the family was felt like sometimes an act of betrayal to go to college felt for me like an act of betrayal. Somehow after Mark step, having had this very intense experience. We found our freedom to be more of who we were, as individuals. Previous Next

< Back Charlie's Story, 2021 Charlie reflects on how he values his experiences with people who he met through his jobs throughout the course of his life. 00:00 / 03:34 Charlie: But the thing that life has taught me is that life is about people. So, everything you do is an opportunity to meet someone. And I've never met anyone who didn't have something to offer. Some more than others. I don't know that I met anyone who had a dramatic effect on my life's path. But because of my role as a newspaper publisher, I got to meet lots of folks, people who were extraordinary people and some of them were presidents of colleges in the valley of five college communities. One of my favorites was Mary Maples down at Smith College, who I would work with. But she was just wonderful to get to know and to work with. At one point I was talking with somebody at and I don't know a meeting at the newspaper and we were talking about going fishing and she said, “what about me? Aren't you gonna take me?” And so in those days I flew with a small plane and we flew down the road island, got on a boat and went out and fished and my deal was I had to deliver her, she had to speak at an alumni group in New York city. So I had to drop her off from New York on my way home. So she was very special. But wherever you are people, as I say, I've never met somebody who didn't have something to offer and whether it's somebody driving a cab or doesn't make any difference. You know, you meet important people and not so important people. And one of my favorite important people stories has to do with Silvio Conte, who was a representative in Washington from this area. I got to know him through the newspaper and I would go to him for things that needed to be done in Washington. I would lobby him, for instance, when I was at the local hospital board, I would ask him to try and be helpful to the hospital. And he called me one day. He says “I helped you. I want you to help me.” And I said, “what?” He said, “my daughter lives here in Washington who works here, and it breaks my heart because she has this wonderful dog. But the dog sits in an apartment all day long and I'm trying to get her to get rid of the dog.” So my wife Kelly and I flew down to Washington, picked up the Brittany spaniel and his daughter would come and visit from time to time. So we had the best of both worlds. The key for me has always been you get far more out of helping people than the time and energy that it takes. So it's a win-win situation. Previous Next

< Back Kaela's Story Kaela expresses how running has been a fundamental part of her life since she was younger but has really unfolded for her as she was in high school and college to something she really loves to do. Over the years, her relationship with running and the community she has formed with it has grown into something that holds a special place for her to continue wherever she ends up in the future. 00:00 / 04:16 I would say when I was very very young, I was always like there's there's these track races they'd have every Wednesday night in my town and I would go from when I was like two or three years old and it would just be like a bunch of really little kids just running down like the straightaway of the track and at the end you get a ribbon. The only reason I liked to go was because there's an ice cream truck there and at the end you would get like a little popsicle from the ice cream truck and I'd get a nice green participation ribbon and I had like a hundred of them cuz I never was anywhere close to the front but, that was kind of like my first introduction to running. When I was very little I continued to do those races throughout elementary school but it was never something that I really saw myself doing, it was just like a fun activity. Then when I was in middle school I had a friend who was like bugging me she's like “you got to come out and try this cross country thing like I know you're really going to like it” and I was being very stubborn about it and I was like “god I just don't think it's for me like it's just not my thing” and eventually I was like “fine I'll go to like the introductory meeting with you” and I want and I was like I left the meeting and already I was like “yeah I'm definitely going to do this” and throughout 2 years in middle school, I did it because I actually really enjoyed running. I liked competing, I thought it was a lot of fun I liked just getting better. I just like I just loved the feeling of running. The feeling of like going after school and just getting to be active. So that was kind of my first introduction to it and then I think as I got older and in high school and college I've definitely it's gone from a “oh this is something I really like to do” to like “wow this is something I love and this is like a sport that I love in a community that I love.” So that my relationship with it has gradually increased and gotten stronger over time. When I am running and when I am healthy and I am very grateful for it. I feel very grateful that I am able to because I've know how many times that I that I haven't been able to do that so it really makes the times when I'm healthy a lot lot special a lot more special. I think that I've learned a lot of resilience and patience from running and not the things we want aren't necessarily going to come to us right away and that things don't necessarily change overnight and it takes a lot of of patience and like dedication and a lot of wanting wanting something to happen to be able to make it happen. I tell you about that and a lot about having a purpose and wanting to. One thing I love about running is I know it is a very much lifelong sport and that there are so many opportunities to continue it once I leave college and get a job. I was so inspired I am able to continue it for as long as I can and hope that wherever I live in the future I'm able to find a new community of Runners and a new running group. I know that they're everywhere. I'm really happy that it is something that I know is going to stick with me for life. For me, I think running definitely has a special place. There's something about just like being able to feel like you're flying over the pavement and it just feels very freeing to me and definitely a place where I can clear my mind. Previous Next

< Back Dennis' Story After the Vietnam War and having to put his future plans on pause, Dennis found himself in the city of Boston, not New York, working in education, not pursuing his studies at law school and gaining confidence all along the way. Scroll to listen 00:00 / 03:35 Well to set the stage. I was in college from 1967 to 1971, and those were very tumultuous times in this country, much of it having to do with the US fighting an ultimately disastrous war in Vietnam and the growing resistance to that war effort. But I was going through a process of trying to figure out what I thought about all this, and I concluded that I was just morally and conscientiously opposed, that I did not want to participate in this war, and there's a process of becoming a conscientious objector. And I went through that process, and my draft board said, okay, we find that you are a conscientious objector. So that meant that if my draft number came up, I wouldn't be put into the military and sent off to fight the war, but I would be asked to do some form of alternative service. At that point, I had been admitted to law school. I was going to be going to NYU in Greenwich Village in New York, was all excited about heading to New York, pursuing the law. I made the estimation that my number would come up so that even if I started law school, I would have to stop law school in order to go do my alternative service of some sort. So I made the decision to just defer and to instead take a job that would qualify as alternative service if my number came up. And I was very interested in urban education, so I decided I would be a daycare teacher on a Head Start program in Boston. So I took that job. It turns out that my number didn't come up, so I could have, in retrospect, gone to law school and just stayed there and moved in that direction. But instead I wound up teaching. And though I discovered that teaching itself wasn't necessarily my cup of tea, but I got involved in other aspects of urban education issues. I became the director of a community school, and then I became involved in other organizing efforts around education in Boston neighborhoods, and I became involved in a variety of youth services and the funding of youth services. So I wound up getting just totally fascinated with the life of neighborhood organizations in different Boston neighborhoods, particularly Jamaica Plain where I lived for 20 years. And there were a few years where I thought about, am I going to go back to law school or not? And at some point that just kind of faded, and I wound up headed in different directions, following my curiosities, following my interests. As I look back on those years, I realized that I developed a sense of confidence that I could change directions and still land on my feet. And that sense of confidence, that sense of agency, has served me well ever since. And as I look back on it, though, I would like to say, oh, it's because of my ingenuity and my smarts, and that may have a little something to do with it. I recognize that so much of this was the privilege that I had, the wonderful education that was made possible for me by my parents. I had a financial backstop. But knowing that there was a very good chance I would land on my feet. Those early years helped give me the confidence to be able to make changes like that knowing how fortunate I was to be able to bring that attitude to things. Many, many people were not and do not now have the kind of background handed to them and the privilege and access handed to them that makes that possible. Previous Next

< Back Kelly's Story Kelly talks with Jesse about her evolving family dynamics during the COVID-19 pandemic. 00:00 / 04:10 When COVID first started, it was my sophomore year of college. I was living on campus at UMass. I remember specifically when I found out that it was going to be like a real issue. It was when Tom Hanks got COVID. It was a joke in my family that that was the first time I actually got a little nervous. I was supposed to go on the UMass Habitat for Humanity trip to Georgia, but they obviously ended up having to cancel it. I have two older brothers Kevin and Timmy. My brother Kevin right now is 27. And my brother Timmy, or Tim, is 25. And I'm 21. My brother wasn't living with us initially, he was living on his own, but obviously COVID isolated a lot of people. He didn't want to be alone like that, especially since we didn't know how long it was going to be. So, he actually moved back home with us. It was the first time in quite a few years that I had a full house. It was weird at first, I think, obviously, I had to do online school. And my mom was working from home. My dad's an electrician, so he wasn't even working. My dad's a funny guy. He loves attention. And he hates being bored. So he was bothering my brothers who were working remotely too. So it was just a cluster of us on our laptops for a little bit. But I think it was really great overall, looking back at it, especially at that time, it was nice to kind of get my family all back together for a few months. I feel like not a lot of people have that opportunity. So it was kind of nice. I learned a lot about my own study habits, work ethic, and stuff like that. In terms of online classes, I feel like it was a hit or miss. Some professors were really good at keeping us engaged. We had more than a year online, because we left the second semester two years ago. So it's like I forgot what it's like to actually be in school. Learning in general, it just isn't what it used to be. It's less collaborative. I feel like the pandemic helped me in some sort of way, it had as many benefits as it did the opposite. And I don't think I would change it. I think I was glad to have the opportunity to live with my family like that for a while. I remember having Thanksgiving with my family, which is usually a very big holiday. Like we have people flying into town. It's like a very big thing. And for the first year ever, we had a just Thanksgiving with my family. Just my immediate family, which we have never done before. The turkey. I don't know if it caught on fire for a second. It was a Thanksgiving disaster. I think we ended up microwaving some pizza. It was fun. We had a lot of fun, especially since everyone's getting older. It was really nice to live in my family like that for a little bit, especially now that my brother moved back out. And it's nice. I feel like I wouldn't have had the opportunity to get as close to them as I did. There was one day when it was very early in the pandemic. I live kind of close to Boston. I'm up in Wakefield. They put in the stay at home order. And my dad wasn't working and he and I ended up driving around the coast, around Gloucester, just for the day just to kill time and stuff like that. And when we were driving, he was like “I really want a haircut. I haven't had the opportunity to get my haircut in so long.” So I told him, I was like, “I'll cut your hair that would be great.” And we got back and I asked him, because my dad's getting older and he is losing some hair, I was like “I'm wondering what you would look like if you were bald.” We weren't seeing anyone, so he shaved his head fully. I started shaving, at first we did a buzzer, and then I got shaving cream and we made him completely bald. That was probably one of the highlights of COVID. He looked scary. And he looked like Mr. Clean. It was good though. I thought it was funny. I think that was a good bonding experience between my family. Previous Next

< Back Ali's Story Ali speaks to Joan about her journey of being adopted. She talks about her mom and her sister and how they became a family. She speaks on how knowing a brief background of her biological family gives her some comfort. 00:00 / 03:28 Yeah so I was adopted when I was 1 year old I think at the time my mom was living with my sister in Hong Kong and the adoption agency had sent her photos of a few children so she sorta got to see them and she could pick which one she wanted which sounds really weird but those are just the children who are available for adoption at the time and she ended up choosing me who knows why but here I am and when everything was final she actually flew down to Vietnam to bring me home everything was pretty much facilitated through the embassy so she had a lot of help in bring me home and it wasn’t too strenuous just for herself she was actually able to meet my birth parents which is something that a lot of people don’t can't really say that their biological parents and their adoptive parents met in person and yeah she met my mom and dad and she tells me that my birth parents couldn’t keep me anymore because they didn’t have the funds to feed me and my mom was crying and my dad was just kind of there but just knowing that is really special because a lot of kids once again they don’t have that they don’t have that memory so my mom said that I have multiple siblings so I guess I was just the one kid that wasn’t able to be fed at the time so it's interesting to know that I have like other siblings out there and my mom also has a photo of me and my biological mom of just her carrying me which is kind of crazy cause I don't know my sister is also adopted from Vietnam just from the south and she doesn’t have any recollection of like anything from her history I think these little details definitely changed the way i feel about adoption in comparison with other adoptees cause many adoptees get left behind you know left at a door step something like they they don't have any memories but there biological parents can say they know and my sister she's also adopted like I said and she was given up right after birth so she doesn't know anything about who her family is or how many siblings she had or anything like that and I think the fact that my family tried to take care of me for like a year was sort of reassuring that I was cared for its something that I am grateful for and other adoptees can't say that they have that same experience and they live their life not knowing what their birth parents truly thought of them which can very it can be stressful and impact their life so just knowing I was cared for was really important for me Previous Next

< Back Freeman's Story Freeman remarks on his decision to retire and how retiring has allowed him to grow as a person and start new things after his career. He later elaborates on the ultimate goals and appreciations he has for his life and his message for others when considering the path of their own life: “think of the long ride, not the short journey.” 00:00 / 04:39 I’ve been retired amazingly since 2013. It was really easy for me, I mean the part that was. First of all, I was really ready to retire. I turned 65. I was going to retire. Principal asked if I would stay another year just to help with transition. I was happy to do that. But I knew that I wanted to do other things. I loved what I was doing. I loved the students. Great way to end my career. But I was ready. I wanted to try other things because my father died at the age I am now. You know you never know how long you have. I was healthy and I wanted to take advantage of that. So fortunately as a teacher in a public school you have a pension. And that made it possible for me to retire. It was easy, and I had a long list of things that I wanted to do. So I started to study Yiddish. I started to teach myself guitar. I started playing chess. I started playing tennis indoors which I had never done before. And I was doing some consulting. So I was plenty busy and I joined the Northampton Arts Council, cause I wanted to contribute to the community in which I lived, not just the community which I had previously worked. And when I was looking at possibilities and things to volunteer for, I was looking at different committees and councils. I noticed that the head of the arts and culture department was a guy named Brian Foot and Brian Foot was a student that I had when I was teaching at Chestnut Middle School in Springfield in the 6th grade. And so that made it even more appealing to get to connect with Brian who was a wonderful young man in 6th grade and now has contributed a great deal to Northampton Arts Scene. It was good to be a part of that for a few years. I am still doing similar kinds of work because I joined an organization called Friends of Northampton Trails and part of the work that we are doing is to promote arts in the neighborhoods in Northampton so that feels good. Right now, I am the secretary, so one of the things I do is take minutes which in some ways is a good thing because taking minutes at least for me means I can’t talk as much so I have to listen better. So that always is a good thing to practice. What I am aware of is that this is a good time for me to spend more time listening. You know I think the most important thing is just being more attentive to what’s around me. Just having an awareness of my environment and not always being active but sometimes just being an observer, just appreciating, just being able to slow down instead of waking up at 5:45 and getting to work by 6:30 or just living more slowly. Looking at the news, playing chess puzzles, and then being able to just have the days evolve. You know that’s such a privilege to be able to do that. And really of all the things that upset me, the fact that I am aware that so many people don’t have this. And I have health, you know so. Being healthy. Having a loving partner. Having loving children who want to be involved in our lives. There’s not that much that I really need. You know I am one of the fortunate people, I mean its crazy that people who are not wealthy, like we are not wealthy, but I have, I had a pension. Its crazy that people don’t have that, and can live a reasonable life. I can’t do whatever I want. I can’t travel the world. I can’t buy anything I want, but I don’t need any of that. I’m fine. And life can be good. You know, I mean I think in times like this when the world seems to be spiraling in so many different crazy ways, its good to know that not everything is damaged. And that the most important thing is being able to expand the number of people who experience that. To live a good life, a quality of life where you are not just working. Life should not be just about work. I mean that’s not what we are here for to do. It’s about caring for each other you know and appreciating the diversity around you. And I am one of the lucky people who have been able to get to that point. And I hope that I can be able to continue it. For me the intention is, is good things ahead. Just take care of yourself. Think of the long ride, not the short journey. Previous Next

< Back 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 00:00 / 03:28 What role has education played in your life? I think education has played an extraordinarily important role in my life in that every time there was something new that I wanted to learn or get involved in. I sought out the best educational experience possible. Education was highly valued in my family, both of my parents had masters degrees and professions. And the understanding when I was growing up for both me and my sister was that we would go to high school and we would go to college and our parents would support us through graduation from college and then we were on our own. When I started off in college, I was Pre-Med with the goal of becoming an obstetrician gynecologist. I had started observing and attending births when I was a candy striper at the age of 14 and even then, I knew that there was something wrong with the way obstetrics was practiced and I felt that my best role could be to become an OBGYN and change that. Very shortly after I got there, I got this sense that in being pre-med I was essentially going to approach the human body as a very sophisticated machine. And that as a physician, I was going to be an extremely sophisticated auto mechanic. And the emphasis was always on the hard sciences and not very much on human interaction. And I just intuitively knew that was wrong, I felt the what felt to me the wrong approach to healthcare. Somewhere in my sophomore year I decided I was not going to become a doctor and decided that I would become a teacher and I applied to and got into an MAT program with the goal of becoming a teacher. Between the summer program, which was part of my MAT program, and returning to school in the fall. I went to England where I met a man who was staring in a television series and he invited me to come to the set and watch how they shot it. And, again I was just totally hooked with the process. I remember on the plane home I was flying back from England I was going to be back in graduate school in a few days. I sobbed so heavily that the flight attendant asked me if I was okay, and by the time I landed I had decided to drop out of graduate school and become a film maker. It was you know within the space of a month of two from that first lecture till that decision, it changed my whole life. Previous Next

< Back Ralph's Story When asked the difficult question of "How would you like to be remembered?" Ralph Lowen discusses the importance of love and his daughter and grandson. 00:00 / 03:27 Hengie: Anyways, so I asked you, how would you like to be remembered? Ralph: And, oh, how would I like to be remembered? I've been thinking about that ever since we brought it up, and I still don't have an answer per se. What I was thinking was, I have a fun 5-month-old grandson, and, you know, initially, I you know, we weren't sure we were ever gonna be grandparents. So, I was thinking, you know, how would I like him to remember me? Because, initially, I thought about things like, you know, where you're asking about eulogies or, you know, thing. That's I won't be there. You know? And what I'd like you know, if we're talking about that, is for people to do what they need to do to make themselves feel better. But in thinking about my grandson, it doesn't really matter that he remembers me in some corporeal form, you know, like, the living flesh type thing. What I'd like him to remember is the love he got. The fact that, you know, he's truly loved. And I got this idea just this morning when I was watching my daughter on Zoom, with her son. And I marveled at the absolute joy and love she was both getting from him and giving to him. I've seen my daughter happy in the past, but there is no comparison to how happy she is now. And to see this little 5 month old so happy and delighted and just, you know, wiggling and being able to lift his head and, you know, whatever 5 months old does for a smile. I think he's smiling, but, you know, that's just a happy grandpa. Those are the things that I think really count. It's, the ability to really feel loved. You know, the kind of the power I'd like to see other people have to be able to live in that moment and appreciate everything around them. And that's what I want for my grandson. And, hopefully, from the joy and happiness I see on my daughter's face, I managed to pass a little of it on. So that's my story of how I would like to be remembered. Previous Next

< Back Barbara S' Story, 2021 Barbara discusses a life changing event from her childhood and again, in her younger years that ultimately, led her to find her love for the Pioneer Valley. 00:00 / 03:10 Eden: “Was there a turning point in your life where you made a major life change that has brought you to where you are today?” Barbara: “Being 69 years old, there are quite a few but I think the one that brought me up here to the Pioneer Valley is the most changing for the positive… so the train is moving along and we jumped off with our backpacks but it was higher than I thought and it was gravel. Something felt wrong after that so to speed forward a little bit, from that Summer on I could not lie flat. Every once in a while I would have a spasm. I found myself in the mid-70s working and managed a news bookshop in New Haven, Connecticut called ‘whitlocks’. We were changing the whole format of the shop over and what I remember is there were these big old fashioned desks. We were trying to put one on top of the other to try to make more room and as I did this I felt something– all I can say is– go. I ended up in bed for five months. During that time, I had a lot of time to think and a lot of time to read all these books on natural history from the bookshop and I had decided to apply to go to college. I graduated in 1970 and hadn’t gone so I applied to a few places that had wildlife biology. UMass in Amherst accepted me quite quickly and gave me a scholarship for the first year. So I moved up here and I went up the highway and there’s a place where you can see the hills that’s actually a bit obscured by trees now but you can see it's the Holyoke Range and I love mountains. I belt at them and experience that feeling of coming home. It’s been wonderful living up here in the valley. 10 years I’ve been in Amherst and the last 35 years I’ve been on the other side of the river in Northampton. It was a good move for me, a very good move. And for the last 35 years I’ve been an antiquarian bookseller. That’s where it finds me now, I’ve been selling old books, old postcards, etc.. Eden: “That’s awesome!” Previous Next

Jonathan shares his special connection with his family and how they have been a major influence in his life, from his brothers to his mom and dad. He touches upon his love for his parents supporting him through sports and making sure he was reaching his fullest potential growing up. With deep gratitude for his mother and everything she had overcome in her early life, he expresses the kind of person and a great appreciation of who she is. Jonathan's Story Jonathan shares his special connection with his family and how they have been a major influence in his life, from his brothers to his mom and dad. He touches upon his love for his parents supporting him through sports and making sure he was reaching his fullest potential growing up. With deep gratitude for his mother and everything she had overcome in her early life, he expresses the kind of person and a great appreciation of who she is. Jonathan's Story 00:00 / 03:44 0:00 I wanted to talk about hobbies and enjoyment because for me that's one of the things that really helped me connect to to my family. You know, my, my brothers and I were all into the the same things, you know, I feel like my younger brothers definitely look up to me a lot because I've very much compared to my older brother. I'm very much on a straight and narrow going through college, going through, you know, going to get a degree, get a job was never in trouble. But I just want them to, really. 0:29 You know, figure out what they want on a life instead of structure it around me. It diverged when it came to sports, but that was also a way that helped me connect my dad, He was always at track meets. There was something that felt really good about having, you know, your parent come and watch you when you're working your **** off for something that you care about. And I remember I was really into soccer after, like throughout middle school, and I really, really wanted to make my freshman year team. 0:59 And the trials were like a week. I thought I did really well. And then come to find out that, you know, I got cut and you know, in my mind I was already like giving up and I was like sour grapes, whatever, It's like not worth it anyway. But then those are the moments when my dad would come in and really give me those good Nuggets of advice and he was hit me with some Rocky Balboa type of doesn't matter. It doesn't matter how hard you get hits, you know, it's what you can get hit and. 1:27 Get up with and I took that into the sports and my high school education afterwards, You know, it made just those moments not only brought me closer to my dad, but also made me a more resilient person. My mom, she started her own business and she thought she was going to be a lawyer, so she was studying law. But then she got quite sick and had to get many surgeries when she was through going through college. 1:56 She found that the one thing that helped her was, you know, her diet and like what she was putting inside of her body. So she decided to become, you know, the the lead in her field of nutrition. She's she's the exact same way, you know, does, you know, she's a business owner does, does her own taxes. Everything she does is very, very much exact. When we were growing up, you know, she was very. 2:23 Made sure that we were on our stuff because she was on her stuff and one of the toughest women I know as well. And she adopted all four boys. And you know, not everybody can do that. It takes a special type of parents to be able to make that happen and she's such a champ about it. Always made sure that we felt like we could do whatever we wanted in life despite, you know, not coming from. 2:53 Your average background, you know, some of my siblings kind of did not appreciate the way that she went about this. But I I understand and I do, you know, she would send us to synagogue despite, you know, sometimes how we look may not match our environment. She would send us to all sports of sports camps, whatever. But the point was, you know, you can do whatever you want in life. And I'm, I've overcome many of things. I want you to be able to overcome things too. 3:23 And it was perhaps intentional, perhaps unintentional. But the lesson stuck. And you know, I appreciate her. Appreciate her greatly for that, but feel like that really boiled back down to who she was. You know who she is. Biggest supporter in my life. Seriously. But yeah, love my mother. Love my mother dearly. Previous Next

< Back Leslie's Story In this clip, Leslie shares her passion for improving the quality of life for people with disabilities with a specific focus on young children and families. 00:00 / 04:07 Leslie: So my passion has been improving the quality of life for people with disabilities with a particular focus on young children and families in my professional roles. When I was a teenager, I became interested in what we called at the time, “mental retardation”, today known as “cognitive impairment” or “developmental disabilities”. One of my first professional jobs was working in a grant funded program for visually impaired children and adults in a state institution. I was fortunate to be part of the movement in the 1970s to expose the abuses of these institutions and improve the conditions as a result of state and federal lawsuits with subsequent funding. Leslie: As we developed this new program and learned about the ravages of trauma and deprivation of institutional life on those children and adults, we understood that we needed to develop relationships with many other staff. Including those in direct care roles who had been there for generations and were wary of so many new young professionals. When I left that position a few years later, I knew I had learned a lot understood, that I had cultivated some good advocacy skills and appreciated that teamwork was a very powerful approach for effective change. Working in that state institution was a jarring and humbling experience. When I left the position, I was aware that many of the people I had worked with had no one to advocate for them. Leslie: I subsequently became a legal guardian for a woman, Diana. She had been born in the institution to her mother, another resident, who had been abused and suffered from syphilis. Subsequently, Diana was deaf limited vision in one eye. I was able to use my knowledge and relationships with staff to improve the quality of Diana's life, first in the institution, later in a group home. Leslie: In contrast to my first position at the institution, I was honored to be part of the progressive approach to including these children and their communities and supporting parents in providing for their child's needs. Service delivery was based on interdisciplinary teamwork, including parents, educators, nurses, social workers and speech occupational and physical therapists. Our philosophy had that parents and families were the most important members of that team and without their investment, we professionals would not succeed. I often tell the story of one of my first home visits with Bonnie, our team nurse. I remember sitting on the floor observing and interacting with the baby while Bonnie was sitting on the couch talking with the mother. Initially, I was annoyed that Bonnie wasn't assessing the child's needs, but quickly recognized that the conversation and relationship with the mother was the most important part of the visit. Leslie: When I moved into an administrative position in the public schools in the early 2000s, I worked collaboratively with guidance counselors in the high schools for students with disabilities could have more equal access to academics and extracurricular activities. In these public schools I thoroughly enjoyed my role as a team leader, facilitating meetings with parents and staff to create appropriate educational programs for each student. Leslie: The teamwork during my early intervention years and some relationships built at that time remained today. There have been several reunions over the years. We rallied over Zoom during the beginning of the pandemic to honor our colleague, Bonnie, who had passed away and had been a mentor for many of us. We recently had a physical reunion just a couple of months ago, about a dozen women, some from out of state. In addition to discussing everyone's current activities and families, the conversation always comes back to what great work we did in those early years and how important that teamwork was to our success. Previous Next