‘I have a son now, my brother’s not going to be an uncle, he’s not going to see all these things that I’m doing.’

Coram

“About two-and-a-half years ago, my brother passed away very unexpectedly at age 34. I’m 34 now and next month I will surpass him. I will be living longer than he did and it’s an unimaginable place to be and it’s something I don’t see talked about a lot.

“I feel like I’m living in an alternate timeline where we got off track — this isn’t where we’re supposed to go, I’m not supposed to be older than you. I’m supposed to be following you, that’s how it was. In the beginning, you’re kind of in shock and there’s a lot of support around then. Then you continue to live your life and realize he’s not going to be here for this or that.

“I have a son now, my brother’s not going to be an uncle, he’s not going to see all these things that I’m doing. People two years later see you laughing, see you smiling and joking and they think ‘Oh, well she’s better I guess’ and I actually feel like it’s worse because there’s no more space to leave for these random days where I really miss my brother.

“My brother was someone everyone went to for advice, he always knew what to do, he was good at everything he did, he was smart, he could just excel at things. He died right before my birthday, so I knew from then on, that birthdays weren’t going to be the same for me ever again because I realized I’m going to be getting older and he’s not. And people will say ‘He would want you to do it, he would want you to be happy.’ It doesn’t matter what he would want.

I don’t need to be cheered up, I just need this feeling to go somewhere, to exist somewhere in the world.

“What I’m feeling needs to just exist somewhere, I don’t need to be cheered up, I just need this feeling to go somewhere, to exist somewhere in the world. The thing is, my son was born a year after my brother died and he was born on his due date and what was his due date? My birthday. I didn’t want him to be born on my birthday. But sometimes I wonder if there really is a place where we go and we see our loved ones and we can guide them or watch them after we pass away. I wonder if my brother being a problem solver, he was like, ‘Lisa’s son needs to be born on her birthday so that she could be happy about that day.’ Because I’m happy to celebrate him on that day and it’s a way to get through that day because it’s about him.”

‘I called the studio and Annie Leibovitz must’ve been waiting for a call because she picked up the phone.’

Babylon

“For my 16th birthday, my parents bought me my first camera. So, I started taking a lot of pictures. And I loved music. I was seeing live music on Long Island, like Twisted Sister at Cheers in Deer Park. But then I saw Led Zeppelin and all I wanted to do was to go to shows.

“I learned how to hustle tickets and I was always sitting close, so I decided to bring my camera to a show. Being close in the front, I kept seeing photographers in the photo pit and I started talking to them. When I went to see Fleetwood Mac at Nassau Coliseum, I had second row seats, so I brought my camera and shot the show. Instead of sneaking in booze to concerts, I was sneaking my camera in. Then I had all these shots, and everybody said, ‘You should do something with your photos.’

“I was a big fan of Rolling Stone magazine and Annie Leibovitz. I thought, let me see if I can track down her studio number and maybe somebody could give me some direction there. I called the studio and Annie Leibovitz must’ve been waiting for a call because she picked up the phone. She was really sweet and rattled off a bunch of photo agencies to me.

They called me up a week later and said, ‘Pick up People Magazine, your photo was going to be in the magazine.’

“And so, I called the first agency. They’re like, ‘Yeah bring your photos in.’ I went in and they said, ‘Wow, you got great photos of Billy Joel. We have a request for Billy Joel, do you mind if we take these pictures and send them in?’ And I said, ‘yeah, no problem.’ They called me up a week later and said, ‘Pick up People Magazine, your photo was going to be in the magazine.’ I was so thrilled!

“But this is the key moment of my career…from a kind gesture that I made. I met a guy at a Talking Heads show in Forest Hills. I was backstage and he dropped a bunch of papers. I walked up and I helped him pick up all the papers. We started talking, and it was Ken Sunshine, who’s a big publicist now, and he goes, ‘I work for ASCAP and I hire photographers. I want you to shoot a luncheon that we’re having for Paul McCartney, but you have to wear a suit.’ That was my first paid job in the business — shooting Paul McCartney. It was just a snowball effect. But the key thing, to me, is always be respectful and kind to everybody. And that’s what went a long way for my career.”

‘In 1976, I found out that I had retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic eye disorder.’

East Patchogue

“I have hearing loss, which I knew about since I was 6 years old. I was wearing hearing aids and knew about the batteries and my older relatives would ask, ‘How does this work?’

“I went to BOCES in the ’70s and I was determined because I always wanted to be a nurse. I got my license and I was a nurse at Pilgrim State Hospital for about 10 years. I’m sure the teachers were a little skeptical of me, but I’d be taking the blood pressure or using the stethoscope and I did it well. They would re-check and they would come to me and say, ‘You were right.’

“I also noticed I couldn’t see well at night and, in 1976, I found out that I had retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic eye disorder. Back then, the doctor said if you were going to lose your vision, you shouldn’t get married and have kids. That’s when I really learned how to fight in my life, other than with my two sisters.

“Other than at night, my vision loss didn’t become a problem until around 1994 when it was a little bit more loss. I raised puppies to be guide dogs because I always felt someday, I may need a dog and I wanted to do my part in advance.

So, I picked up the pace and I felt like I broke through a little marathon, my private marathon.

“I’ve traveled with Ruthie, my 8-year-old guide dog, and one of my favorite walks with Ruthie was walking across the Golden Gate Bridge and with my daughters Cortney and Cheryl. I turned to the girls and I said, ‘I want to walk alone a little bit.’ So, I picked up the pace and I felt like I broke through a little marathon, my private marathon. It was really exhilarating for me — I made it there.

“I retired in 2017 after worked in a library for 16 years as a reference clerk and a technical services clerk. One of the worst things about vision loss is isolation. I know everyone is dealing with it with COVID, but with vision loss you deal with it all the time.

“I was doing a job readiness class through Helen Keller National Center when COVID hit and everything shut down. I would like to educate people. When people come up to me in the store when I’m with the dog, I don’t mind educating them. I have a lot of fun, I used to play tricks on my kids all the time, now they do it to me. Life is really tough, and we need to lighten the mood. Just laugh, try to live life and smile.”

Interviewed by Rachel O’Brien-Morano

‘I’ve been able to live my life as though I was able to see.’

Medford

“They found out in second grade that I couldn’t see well. They gave me a special kind of desk that was on a slant so I would be able to comfortably look at any kind of reading material or test.

“My visual impairment is genetic — the optic nerve didn’t form normally so I believe I’m not getting the whole picture of what I look at. The way to explain it is I’m not getting all the pixels. There’s no way to fix it, but I’m happy about what I can see, I can see flowers, I can see people. Because of different organizations on Long Island that helped me out, I really didn’t have to struggle with my visual impairment.

“When I was 10 or 11, the local Lion’s Club found out that I was visually impaired, and they helped my mother pay for my glasses because they were expensive. My father left us when we were young, so it was my mother who raised me and my siblings. Then the Department of Vocational Rehab paid for my college, and also worked with me when I was an adult and I got a job with the Internal Revenue Service in Holbrook in 1975. They purchased for me a device that could read books, so I was able to look at tax returns and see if there was any missing information. Toward the end, everything was more or less done on the computer with software that made everything larger.

There’s no way to fix it, but I’m happy about what I can see, I can see flowers, I can see people.

“When I retire 37 years later in 2013, my team gave me money to buy a Kindle and I can enlarge the letters. I read a lot, I read the Bible a lot but my eyesight has gotten worse as I got older and I was no longer able to read even the giant print. It was perfect timing that I got this Kindle with lighted lettering. For getting around, I was using public buses with a reduced fare, so I could take a bus for 75 cents. But the problem was I couldn’t see where to get off.

“Now I use the Suffolk County Accessible Transportation – they take me from door to door, any place I want to go in the county for $4 each way. So that’s a real blessing, it’s allowing me to be very independent. Even though I have a handicap, I’ve been able to live my life as though I was able to see. I go to church and I’m able to attend more events and meetings than the rest of the congregation. It’s amazing how I’m able to get there.”

Interviewed by Rachel O’Brien-Morano

‘Till this day, people know Ma. My grandmother’s ice cream and fudge.’

Huntington

“I grew up in Trinidad and my grandma was this strong woman who would put you in your place in two seconds. We’d go hunting, and it was so much fun. On our little hunts we’d go up in the trails, the cane fields, the cashew trees. She’d pick cashews, ‘cause when we’d go home, she’d roast them. And the smell and the taste of cashews you pick from a tree is incredible.

She’d stop and talk and then go to the next house. It was a really close-knit community.

“I grew up with her and coconut oil. She’d get the coconut and drink the water, grate the coconut, have the milk. And then the flakes, you’d roast them over the fire, and you get the oil. The most intoxicating smell of fresh coconut oil. She’d use it for everything — your hair, your skin. You had an earache? She’d put it in your ear. My grandmother would make ice cream, different Trinidadian desserts. And on Sunday she’d make fudge, everything fresh with her coconut milk. She had a cart and she’d go around the block. And by the time she came back home, everything was gone. We’d go with her and everybody called her Ma. “Ma give me ten of that!” And I mean she made money. And everybody waited for Sunday ‘cause Ma was coming. So, she had us and my cousins and we’d go with her, and I remember just watching. She’d stop and talk and then go to the next house. It was a really close-knit community.

“Till this day, people know Ma. My grandmother’s ice cream and fudge. She was such a character. My aunt was pregnant and wanted a coconut. My grandma said, ‘You want it? Hold on,’ and she climbed the tree at sixty-something years old. I swear to you, got the coconut for her! She used to tell us stories. She had these old folk stories that she told my mom, so passed down. And she’d sing and she would change her voice and be every character. Living in Trinidad, the electricity would go out a lot. So, when that went out, that was our cue. She’d light the candle and we’d sit around the candle and she’d tell us these stories. I remember when I was pregnant, I called her in Trinidad. I’m like ‘Ma, you have to tell me these stories’ and I recorded them. I have some that I started writing down ‘because I’d love to pass them on to my daughter.’”

Interviewed by Betsy Abraham

‘I always felt like I had a forest fire chasing me with the cancer.’

Dix Hills

“I lost most of my family to cancer. I lost my brother to brain cancer and my father to CJD, the human form of mad cow. My brother meant the world to me. He died in three months. When he lost his voice to brain cancer, we spoke through each other’s eyes. A few years after that, my father contracted CJD, which is just the most horrible death. Watching somebody die of that is hell on earth.

“I missed one year of a mammography. When I went, the doctor said to me, ‘this is really bad, you need to go to your breast surgeon and get this looked at right away.’ They made an appointment for me to have surgery and we did a double mastectomy. Thank God I did that. No tests showed on my left side I had a tumor. If I would have done one side, years from now it could have been cancer.

“My daughter, during the pandemic, was getting her appendix out. And then we got a call that her appendix was cancer. I was devastated. I couldn’t even breathe. They had to remove part of her colon. She had to go on chemo for six months. I was trying to heal from my breast surgeries and my daughter needed help. I had to watch my four grandchildren. We would go for walks, picnics. I really had faith in God that my daughter was going to be stronger.

“After my brother passed, I learned so much about how life can be taken from you so quickly. In his memory, I wanted to share all the resources I had learned so my husband and I created the Guardian Brain Foundation. We provide direct support services to patients with brain cancer, brain injuries and brain tumors.

I used to always say, at the end of each day, find one good memory, no matter how bad your day was.

“When I come into horrifying or stressful situations, I just reach down and tell myself you have two choices, either you could fall apart, or you could be strong and fight this. If you fall apart, you’re going to get sicker. You have to think positive. I used to always say, at the end of each day, find one good memory, no matter how bad your day was. Now I say, ‘find three good memories at the end of each day.’ Somedays it’s not easy. But it helps.

“I always felt like I had a forest fire chasing me with the cancer. It was like a fear that always came over me. I knew that one day it was going to hit me. And it did. But I beat it.”

Interviewed by Betsy Abraham

‘If you work at it, you can accomplish pretty much anything.’

Port Jefferson Station

“I went to the circus and said, ‘Can I be a clown?’ They said, ‘You can be an usher.’ And that’s how I started, at the very bottom. But I had an agenda and a plan. I had things I wanted to accomplish. Within a year I got to be a clown. I was a stunt clown, then I was an audience participation clown. All the while I was working on the Renaldo Joins The Circus storybook and having dreams of creating my own theater so I could take what I learned and put it into a place that was mine.

“All my children have some of my skill, be it artwork or circus skill. My youngest son Renaldo has all my skill. And he’s named after my clown. When I retire, he’ll take the mantle and be the new Renaldo. Everything I’ve learned and done and all that it represents will be passed to him, like an inheritance. I met the wife I have now in England. I was headlining in a show called Zippo’s Circus in England and that’s where we met. She’s really good at what she does. I’ve seen her balance a chair, a wheelbarrow, a 10-foot ladder. If she can pick it up over her head, she can balance it.

I love doing the haunted houses, it helps me do what I love to do which is show people what they can do.

“I helped to create Open Stage Works, it’s a little theater on Long Island. I lend my expertise and experience of 30 years to help with the theatrics and aesthetic, kind of like an artistic director. I love doing the haunted houses, it helps me do what I love to do which is show people what they can do. There’s a fine line between scaring people and making them laugh. And I love jumping over that line, depending on where I’m at. If I’m in the haunted house I can scare you with the best of them. If I’m in a circus show I can make you laugh with the best of them.

“You have to work for it. And I hope to show that through what I’m doing with my kids and the theater and all the stuff I’m working on. To help people understand they can do so much, if they work at it. If you work at it, you can accomplish pretty much anything.”

Interviewed by Betsy Abraham

‘I’m so incredibly thankful for how far he’s come, because I know we’re one of the lucky ones.’

Massapequa Park

“I was 20 weeks pregnant and went to my regular OBGYN and they told me the baby’s not cooperating, you have to go somewhere with better machines. I didn’t think anything of it, so I went to a specialist and they had me there for six hours because again, the baby wasn’t cooperating. On the sixth hour, one of the technicians saw something that didn’t look right. It was one of those moments you’re on the outside, looking in. I was like, ‘what the hell did you just say?’

“All of a sudden, there’s two cardiologists, two specialists and six techs in the room. They said your baby has transposition of the great arteries. It was one of those moments you’re on the outside, looking in. I was like, ‘what the hell did you just say?’ They explained he had a heart defect and he wouldn’t be able to survive unless they repaired it at birth.

“When I had him, I couldn’t jump into the mommy role. I wasn’t allowed to change his diaper. He was on a feeding tube so I couldn’t feed him. I didn’t hold him until he was 9 days old. It’s a different experience when you have a baby and they take him away immediately. I held him for 10 minutes and then he was put into a seven-hour open-heart surgery.

He went through so much but alongside him I went through so much, and I almost feel that we healed together.

“Fast forward and he’s the light of my life. There’s something about him, he pulls on the heartstrings. He’s 20 months old and for the most part, he’s been developing as a normal average baby. They did tell us to expect cognitive delays as he gets older. He’s still not speaking. He hasn’t said ‘mama’ and that’s hard for me. He went through so much but alongside him I went through so much, and I almost feel that we healed together. I feel like him saying ‘mama’ is the light at the end of the tunnel for me. I feel like I’ve earned it at this point.

“He goes to the cardiologist every four to six months and he will for the rest of his life. There’s a 20 percent chance he’ll need another open-heart surgery. We take his life appointment to appointment. But I’m so incredibly thankful for how far he’s come, because I know we’re one of the lucky ones.

“I think out of my entire family, I’m the one healing from it the most. I want him to be proud of what he’s gone through and in him being proud of what he’s gone through, it’s helping me heal. I’m so proud to be his mom.”

Interviewed by Betsy Abraham

‘It was like a family secret. But it never really affected me, I was a child.’

West Islip

“We came to the United States in 2001, when I was 9 years old. We migrated from Argentina, like many immigrants, following that American dream of a better life and better opportunities. We came here legally, with a visitor visa. But eventually, that expired. I knew we were undocumented. It was like a family secret.

“But it never really affected me, I was a child. I think when I really started to realize the effects is when I began seeing my friends getting their learner’s permit and first jobs. I had situations where people would say, ‘why don’t you have your learner’s permit?’ and I would say, ‘I don’t want it, I’m not interested,’ but in reality, I was dying to have those things.

I’m tired of being treated like a criminal and running away as if we committed a huge crime when in reality, my parents just came here for a better life.

“When I was around 16 — and this is very common in the Latino community, multiple families are living in the same house, and this is around the time Suffolk County police was working with immigration — they came to our house. I was in school, so was my brother, and my father was working. For the other families there, they were all taken away to a detention center. The only person still there was my mom. The only reason they didn’t take my mom was because my mom was with my little brother. They told her, we’re gonna come back tomorrow and if you’re still here, we’re going to take you away. We had to pack whatever little things we had and leave.

“That was a breaking point for me. It was like, ‘no, that’s it. I’m tired of being treated like a criminal and running away as if we committed a huge crime when in reality, my parents just came here for a better life.’ I really became more open about it and more involved with what it’s like to be a Dreamer.

“From when I was a little girl, I felt like I was put in this world to do something to help others. Maybe not always being the person who represents somebody, but tells them these are your rights, this is what you can do when you encounter this situation. Because I wish someone would have told my family, these are your rights, and this is how you can handle this situation. I want to do that for other families.”

Interviewed by Betsy Abraham

‘No matter what the economy does, dogs never stop pooping.’

Glen Cove

“I had a tire shop in Glen Cove and I was looking to do something else. I was getting bored. I was at my friend’s house and his wife came outside with antipasti and stepped in a big pile of dog poo and started gagging. I thought there might be something here.

“I started researching and bouncing ideas off people at the tire shop. Half of them said there’s no way anybody is going to pay you to pick up dog poop. The other said if there’s anybody that’s going to make money with dog poop, it’s you. And 20 years later, here we are.

“We have business opportunities across the U.S. and in the UK. I’ve been sought after for reality shows from three different networks. We wrote a screenplay and sat down with Adam Sandler. They loved the concept, but the timing was off. I was in his movie, “The Week Of.” I played a fat Italian at a Jewish wedding. With this business, you have to have a great sense of humor. You have to embrace it.

It’s like anything, if you follow through and do what you say, you’re going to succeed.

“The first week we decided to form the business, I had 10 customers. It’s like anything, if you follow through and do what you say, you’re going to succeed. Hard work pays off. No matter what the economy does, dogs never stop pooping. Which dog poops the most; you have any idea? It’s the Boxer. You can’t even imagine.

“We’ve been in rooms with brain surgeons, big celebrities. They’ll be talking to me and I’ll be like, ‘I’m the king of poop,’ and they go crazy. They don’t care about the brain surgeon anymore. I’d love to do more reality TV. I saw a Facebook post: ‘Do you have a cool car and unique story?’ So I said, ‘I have an orange dune buggy and I’m the king of poop.’

“The phone rang the next day! Next thing you know, they’re flying me to California. It was for a show called “Sticker Shock.” I met so many cool people. Animal Planet approached me, A&E, History Channel, but reality TV started going the other way because of COVID. Timing is everything. Sooner or later, one of the networks is going to pull the trigger. King of Poop TV is my YouTube channel. We have three videos called Dung Dynasty. You’re gonna go nuts. I have another channel called Jimbo’s Raccoons. I got 50 raccoons in my backyard. I can’t get a dog. They’ll go crazy. I got two cats.”