“I met my husband later in life. I’m a serial monogamist. I was really into my career, and having a family didn’t cross my mind. When I was ready to start a family, it was a struggle for me…
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“My mother and father were always for me being a firefighter, even though other people told me you have to be some kind of crazy to go into a burning building when everybody else is running out…
WATCH NOW“I always think about my experience growing up being Shinnecock and how important storytelling is and knowing the truth of what happened here…
READ STORY“I’ve always been more comfortable in the water than anywhere else. It was something I was always interested in. We just didn’t know how to go about it because I have cerebral palsy…
READ STORY“I started working as a librarian in 2004. I was inspired by my best friend, Mary Robinson, who has worked in libraries since we were teenagers…
READ STORY“Growing up, I always wanted to write stories. Initially, I thought I would write the next Great American Novel, but then I realized that I was more drawn to comics…
READ STORY“I am the second child and first daughter of Igbo Nigerian immigrants. Nigerian parents and culture really value education…
READ STORY“I’m a person with autism who loves to do theater. I do so many shows, it’s really entertaining for me…
READ STORY“I live in Hauppauge but grew up in Commack after moving there in 1957 at age 5, when it was nothing but cabbage farms…
READ STORY“I began as a dishwasher and busboy making money so I could go out with friends. I kept at it and moved up the ranks…
READ STORY“Deep down, I had always wanted to be involved with the arts – particularly arts education – because my education in the arts was so integral in shaping me into the person I am today…
READ STORY“When we started at West Hempstead High School, the first time we went into the school they were having auditions for the seventh-grade dance…
READ STORY“I grew up in East Meadow, and I consider where I grew up as my spot in the world…
READ STORY“This started when I was young. I was about 10 years old. This is 1941, the beginning of World War II…
READ STORY“I had hydrocephalus, which causes fluid in the brain. I was surgery-free for 13 years until 2010, when I had a shunt revision where they found out my shunts were detached from my head…
READ STORY“I was always a baseball fan growing up. I got it from my dad, who took me to Yankees games since ’95…
READ STORY“Being diagnosed has never stopped me from wanting to dance. It pushed me to continue with something that I love…
READ STORY“I journeyed to Sedona, Arizona, to find myself. I decided to visit there after I visited a yoga studio that had these amazing sparkling red rocks on their walls that called to me…
READ STORY“I am a product of the ’60s, a true hippie! I met my husband hitchhiking. We traveled cross-country for three months, and we got married two years later…
READ STORY“I’ve always loved dogs. I grew up in Smithtown; we had an acre of property, really kind of in the sticks right by the Nissequogue River…
READ STORY“I’ve been a Roman Catholic nun for 54 years with the Sisters of Charity Halifax. I worked in Peru for 10 years with women and youth…
READ STORY“When I was 4 years old, I got really sick on Christmas Day and had to be rushed to the hospital. I stayed there overnight, and when I woke up in the morning, I received a big bag of toys at the end of my bed from the Child Life Program at Good Samaritan Hospital…
READ STORY“I was devastated when I lost my grandfather in the sixth grade. I didn’t handle his death well. Now that I teach sixth grade, I realize that it’s confusing if no one is talking to you about the process…
READ STORY“As a Jewish South African, the first black person I ever met was our maid, Miriam Lusenga. When I was 2 years old, my mother died, and when I was 9, my stepmother passed away, too…
READ STORY“Six years ago, I lost my son James to a drug overdose. He was 19 years old. We found out that he was going to be a father; now I have a granddaughter…
READ STORY“The way my life has evolved, as I get older, the more I realize what we do is not truly about us…
READ STORY“I began dressing up as Abraham Lincoln for my middle school students on the Friday before Presidents’ Day weekend…
READ STORY“As an artist, I was working in my studio one day. My dog, Dagger, came over and nudged me with his snout. I jokingly said to him, ‘Would you like to paint like Mommy?’…
READ STORY“I’m originally from the South Bronx, but moved to Bellmore in 1972, and I’ve been living here 50 years now. I’m turning 91 in September…
READ STORY“A mental medium is what most people are familiar with when you mention mediumship, speaking with the dead…
READ STORY“I am an artist and often have more creative ideas than I have the ability to carry out, particularly now in my post-stroke body, which is healing slowly…
READ STORY“I joined the band in March of 2019. Before joining, I hadn’t played the keyboard in years because life got in the way…
READ STORY“A couple of years ago, a friend of mine asked me if I’d be interested in jamming in an all-female Bon Jovi tribute band, Radio Active…
READ STORY“After 58 years of marriage, the last 10 of which were consumed by the relentless attack by Parkinson’s disease on my husband, it struck its final blow…
READ STORY“I chose a career in early childhood education and had the joy of working with the youngest of children as both a teacher and administrator…
READ STORY“My channel opened up 15 years ago as a spiritual medium. I started meditating and started taking classes and revealing my faulty thoughts…
READ STORY“I got the bug for it when I was 5 or 6 years old; I would be singing around town, and I got a lot of attention for it…
READ STORY“About a year and a half ago, a former work colleague asked me to watch a video presentation about her cousin who was in need of a kidney…
READ STORY“If there’s something I need, I’ll try to make it. The satisfaction I get in making things is magnified whenever I share it with somebody else…
READ STORY“A lot of wake-up calls happened during COVID. In no way was it a good time for anybody…
READ STORY“After the shooting in Parkland [Florida] in 2018, I went to my first meeting for the L.I. chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America…
READ STORY“When I graduated from high school, I gave up a soccer scholarship to attend dance classes back home on Long Island with my first mentor, Deidre McCarthy…
READ STORY“I was 17 and shoveling the driveway; my hands got so cold that my parents said it must be frostbite. My fingers got so swollen that I had to get my class ring made bigger…
READ STORY“I was 15 when I came to this country from South Korea. In 1975, there were very few Asian people in Newburgh, New York, and I didn’t know American culture…
READ STORY“I had gotten divorced, celebrated my 50th birthday, and was faced with the question, ‘What do I now?’…
READ STORY“I was born in 1929 in New York City. I was one of the first incubator babies. My father, Constantine, was in World War I. He was a doughboy and was mustard-gassed…
READ STORY“I had always been musical as a kid growing up in Roslyn Heights. My parents, who were not musicians, lived next to a successful composer named George Kleinsinger…
READ STORY“My son, Anthony, turns 20 in July and is totally blind due to a disorder called osteopetrosis. I thought I was having a perfect pregnancy, and he wasn’t diagnosed immediately after birth…
READ STORY“Being a chef and a stand-up comedian are similar because both food and jokes make people happy, and if you don’t deliver, the people will let you know it…
READ STORY“I come from a first generation of immigrants, from Barbados and El Salvador, and grew up without a father…
READ STORY“As a kid, I would always compete against my brother, because he was older than I was. If he could go bowling, then I had to bowl…
READ STORY“So my father was actually a photographer, but it was something he did on the side…
READ STORY“I had just retired, and I was looking for something that I was passionate about that involved the environment and wildlife conservation…
READ STORY“When I was graduating from Holy Trinity High School, I was trying to think practically, so I thought I wanted to be a computer engineer…
READ STORY“My mother, Ruth Nasca, passed away after a short illness in 2018 at 89. A prolific artist, she made art almost every day for over 70 years…
READ STORY“Five years ago, I went through a routine mammogram and sonogram appointment. The mammogram was normal, but the sonogram detected a tumor…
READ STORY“I always loved the lighthouse. I loved fishing underneath it as a kid, surfcasting there, fishing in front of it with my dad, working on boats underneath it back when the Coast Guard ran it…
READ STORY“In sixth grade, for my yearbook, they asked, ‘What do you want to be when you’re older?’ and I said I wanted to be a chef…
READ STORY“My dad would take me dumpster diving in the mid- to late-’70s. He had a body shop, and we would pull old car wrecks out of the side of a hill and scrap ’em…
READ STORY“I started Love, Nana about a year and a half ago in my house…
READ STORY“My wife Kathy and I were getting ready to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary in September 2014. That Labor Day, I got a cold and my wife caught it from me, but she got a cough. She went to the doctor; they did chest x-rays and saw something there…
WATCH NOW“It started with watching early pop cartoons and Disney when I was a kid. I loved the way they looked, so I started doodling…
READ STORY“After retiring from teaching in Corona, I became a poppy for my grandchildren…
READ STORY“I was teaching for 10 years at different schools, trying to find that niche, that place for me…
READ STORY“I grew up in this [school] district, and what drew me here to work was luck, faith and blessings…
READ STORY“I went to Hofstra for college to play football. My dad was doing things in the community, and he became friends with the mayor of Hempstead, who was looking for someone to run a youth program…
READ STORY“I was born in the U.S., but most of my family came here from Ecuador. When I was a teen, on weekends my uncle would take me to wait with undocumented immigrants in Farmingville looking for work…
READ STORY“I started shooting 35 mm film when I was in 10th grade. I was on varsity cheerleading, and I dealt with a sexual assault…
READ STORY“I’ve been interested in history pretty much all my life. I was a docent during the bicentennial at the Old House and Schoolhouse…
READ STORY“I found I needed to fill some of that extra time I had after I finished my stint as mayor of Sea Cliff. I became a tour guide…
READ STORY“They thought I had meningitis. They gave me last rites, told my family I was going to die, but I didn’t. A few months later, I went to see a neurologist, and he told me I was having seizures…
READ STORY“My family emigrated from Greece in 1982 and brought the love of animals and earth with them…
READ STORY“I grew up in Glen Head, was an honors student in high school, sang in the chorus, studied ballet, performed in the plays. Ordinary, really…
READ STORY“My whole life, my family’s been in and out of hospitals: my grandma, aunt, grandpa, great grandpa and great grandma all had medical issues…
READ STORY“My dad was a teacher in El Salvador. It was during the civil war in the 1980s, when teachers were often a target for their ideas, that he emigrated to the U.S., and my mother joined him…
READ STORY“When I was a girl, my dad owned a jewelry- and watch-repair shop in Brentwood…
READ STORY“In 1989, my wife, Angie, was pregnant with our second child, and, unfortunately, at birth there was a major accident…
READ STORY“I was always curious about my dad’s service in World War II. My late father, Paul Clare, suffered from PTSD, having nightmares and often screaming his friend Jay’s name…
READ STORY“I love learning about the government and the way our country works. I was taking a law class when I was in the ninth grade…
READ STORY“This is really my sister’s story, but I’m telling it; it’s like a donor’s narrative. She has a super rare autoimmune disease called IgA nephropathy…
READ STORY“We got inspiration from Instagram to start this particular business…
READ STORY“I was born with cerebral palsy. When I was very little, I had to be confined to a wheelchair because it was very difficult to walk…
READ STORY“I always enjoyed films when I was young and was the kind of person who would stay up to watch the late show and the late, late show…
READ STORY“We rescued him six years ago. We named him Buddy after the movie ‘Elf,’ and then once he started playing piano, we added Mercury…
READ STORY“Ten years ago, I had an idea for a story. I’m an attorney by trade, but I said to my wife, ‘I think I’m going to write a short film…’
READ STORY“I always wanted to be an artist, but I just didn’t know how I would make a living of it. I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age 11, so my mother always told me to make sure I have a job that has benefits…
READ STORY“I’m a father of six, but we did lose one. We’re angel parents. My oldest daughter, Kelly, was murdered in 1976 on Fourth of July weekend in Astoria, Queens…
READ STORY“Growing up, I was horrible at baseball at first, really awful. I still loved to play. It was a bonding experience with my dad…
READ STORY“Maggie didn’t want to be known as the girl with cancer. It’s odd she got struck by this. We wonder how and why all the time. She was 16 when she was diagnosed…
WATCH NOW“My life of loss began the day our young mom left due to childhood wounds of her own, and though her choice deeply impacted us, I have come to understand how losing her own mom at a young age traumatized her…
READ STORY“I’m doing music because I couldn’t live without it. I grew up in Germany until I was 14. My parents were missionaries after WWII. My mother was a singer, and my father was a saw player. I was surrounded by a love of music…
READ STORY“When I was a kid in Oceanside, I had an inordinate amount of energy, and I wanted to be an actor. I never deviated from this goal…
READ STORY“I always struggled in school. I had trouble focusing and was always acting out, getting in trouble…
READ STORYIf you look at my high school yearbook, it’s always things like, ‘Have fun in New York!’ And then I got pregnant six months later…
READ STORY“When I was growing up in Massapequa, I didn’t really find Long Island that interesting. I didn’t think there was much history here; everything seemed to be developed…
READ STORY“I was always interested in airplanes as a little kid. Growing up, I saw movies like ‘Iron Eagle’ and ‘Top Gun,’ that’s what did it…
WATCH NOW“I first became aware of Network Support Services Inc. when I was in Otisville State Correctional Facility serving a 25-year sentence for an offense I didn’t commit…
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