In the last few weeks, have you noticed the blooming trees and the abundant, brilliant yellow forsythia, daffodils and gorgeous pink cherry blossom trees kissing us with their colors?
It’s been a powerful, personal time in which I celebrated Passover, my friends celebrated Easter and in unity, the Greek Orthodox celebrated their Easter on the same day as their Christian counterparts. We are one in wishing joy to each other and we are one in finding joy in family gatherings.
With all the political uncertainties, the one thing that unites us all is love of family.
I was blessed to meet for lunch, after decades, my dearest cousin Pebe’s daughter Dana, who was born a week after my Lara. Pebe was my best friend who passed away a few years ago after we had been separated, with her living on the West Coast for dozens of years.
I had watched Dana’s growth as a baby and how different it was from my daughter Lara’s development. It opened my eyes to Lara’s developmental delays. With each passing day, a bigger and bigger gap between them appeared.
From living a few blocks away when the children were born, Pebe moved to New Jersey and then California, so sadly, we did not get to see each other often. Now, 50 years later, Dana has moved back to New York.
When the door opened and this tall, beautiful, smiling woman and her husband Brian greeted me, we just hugged and hugged and hugged. We sat down to share memories and photos from the many old albums I found gathering dust in my closet and she brought me some photos that I had never seen before.
Tears fell from my eyes! They were tears of joy because I was so grateful we had reconnected.
Reconnecting is liberating because I was anxious about how I would feel seeing Dana, knowing that could have been Lara, but Lara contributed to my life in ways no one else could have. Although Lara passed away when she was 17, she was the most impactful person in my life.
Lara’s needs led me to create Life’s WORC and then meeting Geraldo Rivera, whose impactful Emmy Award-winning coverage of the Willowbrook State School crisis taught me the power of the press, creating my interest in a journalism career, resulting in my first newspaper, the Queens Courier.
From the pain of Lara’s brain damage, good has evolved and I’m grateful everyday.
Seeing Dana was joyful and we shared memories that are priceless!
Extraordinary research
Because of my career in journalism, I was delighted to meet the impactful and highly respected Jennifer Raab, the former esteemed president of CUNY’s Hunter College who is now CEO of the New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF), a research institute doing cutting-edge science on Manhattan’s West Side.
Their mission is to accelerate cures for many diseases through stem cell research.
I had the privilege of being invited by Jennifer to an intimate luncheon with some of her leaders in research and interested “laymen” to learn about her group’s groundbreaking work. She explained that her scientists are focusing on finding cures for aging, Alzheimer’s, autism, cancer, diabetes and macular degeneration.
After an informative lunch, we all went up to the labs and spoke with two extraordinary scientists who are working on curing macular degeneration by taking patients’ healthy eye cells to replace the ones that are deteriorating! My mom had that disease and how wonderful it would have been to give her back her sight. I was so impressed as I listened to how they are now achieving that miracle!
The cutting-edge research could change our lives in ways we could never have imagined.
I hope that Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Robert R. Kennedy Jr. is following their research in autism. Why it’s affecting many more people is one form of research, but the bulk of our resources should focus on finding help for those coping with autism.
The NYSCF visit excited me about how close we are to finding answers to diseases that destroy our loved ones.
If you want to learn more about their critical work and donate to their cause, visit NYSCF.org.
Birthday celebrations
Love to you, my dear readers.
