Faces of Long Island celebrates the uniqueness of everyday Long Islanders. In their own words, they tell us about their life experiences, challenges and triumphs. Newsday launched this social media journey into the human experience to shine a light on the diverse people of this wonderful place we call home.

‘The doctor explained this was uncommon for a teenager and that we needed to get to the bottom of this.’

Charlotte Muller, Northport

“When I was 17, my mom unexpectedly passed away. It was so jarring. She was 51 years old. She looked completely healthy; she was petite, led a relatively stress-free life and yet she passed away from a heart attack. Grieving at 17 was tough. That’s the age where you’re about to go to college and figure out who you are as a person, and without my mom, it just turned my world upside down. It was difficult for my family – my dad and my two older sisters. My dad was by our side every step of the way.

“We found out after she passed away that my mom had familial hypercholesterolemia (FH). It’s an inherited cholesterol disorder that affects 1 in 250 people. What happens is that internally, the body creates excess cholesterol, and if left untreated, arteries clog rapidly, leading to early heart attack or stroke. You can look healthy, exercise, and eat well, and still have the disorder. We didn’t know she had it, but we did know that she had high cholesterol. It took just one heart attack to lose her. Her father died around the same age in the same way. It was a clear pattern on my mom’s side.

“A few months after I lost her, my dad pushed me to see my doctor to get my levels checked out. They found out that I had really, really high cholesterol. The doctor explained this was uncommon for a teenager and that we needed to get to the bottom of this. Turns out, I have the same disorder that my mom had. I have familial hypercholesterolemia.

“When I got diagnosed with FH, I was in shock. I was petite, like my mom, and visually healthy, but I completely changed my diet and started exercising immediately. This lowered my cholesterol 100 points, but it wasn’t enough. My cholesterol was still super high.

“This was the summer before college. I didn’t feel like I fit in that well at college because I had just lost my mom, I couldn’t eat any of the food in the campus cafeterias, and I wasn’t partying or drinking. I felt like an outsider, just not your typical college kid. It wasn’t working for me, so I transferred to a local college to be closer to home. I started exercising more and realized I love the way exercise feels. I became a certified group fitness instructor, personal trainer and a yoga teacher. I wanted to work in the health and wellness industry professionally.”

One of my missions in life is to help people get the diagnosis because FH is a very common health disorder, but a lot of people don’t know they have it.

“About 10 years ago, I created a personal brand called Breathe Strength. It was a combination of yoga and strength training. At the time, I was advocating for heart health and teaching wellness, but I wanted to do so on a larger scale. After a few years, I opened a yoga studio in New York City, but unfortunately, it couldn’t withstand the effects of COVID. I didn’t give up. A little over a year ago, my husband and I joined forces professionally to open a gym in East Northport called Pulse Barbell Club that includes strength training and yoga! It’s this beautiful combination of everything we need.

“My husband is the main coach in the strength training side of our gym. He has Crohn’s disease, so both of us have our own setbacks with our health, which is why we find wellness so important. I’m also a CPR instructor, so I certify people to save lives! We didn’t open our business only for ourselves; we want to better our community, and beyond, and show them how important and enjoyable exercising can be. It makes you feel good. I have people from all over the world who join in on virtual yoga sessions. It’s a rewarding path, and our community is so strong.

“Aside from our business and teaching yoga classes, I also do a lot of work with the Family Heart Foundation. They aim to spread awareness about inherited disorders and heart health. I volunteer for them and spread as much awareness as possible. If I could tell one thing to people, it’s to know your risk for heart disease.

“One of my missions in life is to help people get the diagnosis, because FH is a very common health disorder, but a lot of people don’t know they have it. If you have high cholesterol, specifically high LDL, ask yourself a few questions. Ask yourself, ‘Do I live a relatively healthy lifestyle, eat well and move my body?’ If you answer yes, then ask yourself, ‘Do I have any family history of heart attacks, strokes or high cholesterol?’ If that answer is also yes, then chances are you may have FH. From there, you would see a cardiologist and opt for a genetic test. Somebody with FH needs medicine.”

I’m not a failure for needing medicine.

“I’ve tried everything I possibly could to not be on medicine, and I mean everything, but I need it. My liver is creating way more cholesterol than the average person. I could cut out meat and sugar and cholesterol completely, but my numbers will still be high because my body’s making too much of it. I’m on biweekly injections that I take in my stomach. It’s an amazing drug. Medicine is saving my life. I used to be anti-medicine and I considered myself a failure if I had to rely on it, but it’s a learning process. I’m not a failure for needing medicine. It wasn’t the way I was living that caused this. It’s just my body not functioning normally, and my medication helps me live a normal life.

“I want to keep this momentous push forward to get everybody healthy. I have this framework that I call the Four Pillars of Sustainable Wellness, which is basically the backbone behind everything that I offer and teach: mental health, physical health, spiritual health and social health. If we work on these four aspects of ourselves, then everything else will work out.”

Interviewed by Melanie Gulbas

‘When I was 10 or 11, I started cooking on my own, nothing crazy like I can do now.’

Northport

“I’ve loved cooking since I was 8. I would mix weird food combinations. When I was 10 or 11, I started cooking on my own, nothing crazy like I can do now. I could make spaghetti and meatballs; that was probably the first thing I made.

“I begged my mom to let me go on ‘Chopped Junior.’ It was brand new. Reluctantly, when I was at the end of sixth grade, she said yes. I started the audition process; it took about six months. I went into New York City to film it, and six months later the episode aired. You have to make an appetizer, an entrée and dessert. I made duck sliders, fish tacos and a curry ice cream parfait. I came in second, but the only person who wins money is whoever comes in first.

“In sixth grade, I took home economics. My teacher, Mr. Roberts, was a CIA [Culinary Institute of America] graduate, which is part of the reason I started getting more into cooking. Deciding to pursue this as a career probably happened in 10th grade, when I learned I could go to technical school at the same time as high school. Once I got to technical school, I said, OK, this is it, I’m taking this seriously now. I don’t think until that point I really realized what profession I wanted to be in.

The fact that I’m working in one of [Keller’s] restaurants at the age of 19 is crazy to me.

“I applied to the Culinary Institute and Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island. I got accepted to both; basically it came down to who’s going to give me more money. CIA gave me more money, and I love the education I’m getting there. Part of the education at CIA is an externship; it’s technically a class. I applied to Per Se [a French restaurant in Manhattan]. I’m a little more than halfway done. In the kitchen, there’s a hierarchy system. I mostly do prep work. It’s taught me more about the restaurant industry, about how a Michelin-star restaurant functions.

“I haven’t met executive chef Thomas Keller yet, but I’ve seen him. He’s a rock star, a living legend. The fact that I’m working in one of his restaurants at the age of 19 is crazy to me. However, my end goal at the moment, and this can change any time, is to work for a Formula 1 team as a chef. I’ve been following them for about two years now. It’s a big hospitality industry and the teams are giant. And obviously, they all need to eat.”

Interviewed by Barbara Schuler

‘I’ve had the good fortune to wander across six continents.’

Northport

“Always in search of exotic places and strange faces, I’ve had the good fortune to wander across six continents, from burning deserts to icy glacial mountains to the glories of the American West. It began in the back of my parents’ car on seemingly endless rides out east to the pine barrens and my grandparents’ summer place. I started to travel alone at 17; the first stunning views of the Adirondacks led to sensational others of the Alps, the Dolomites, the Taurus and Elburz, the Hindu Kush, the Rockies, Drakensberg and Andes ranges, to name a few. My grandfather traveled by steamboat across the Pacific to China in the early 1900s. I think inherited the gene DRD4-7R, aka the ‘wanderlust gene,’ from him.

“Setting out to go around the world at the age of 27, I made it through Europe, the Middle East and India before returning to Europe and settling in Denmark. I worked as a flight attendant for international airlines at the tail end of the glory days, which added glamor to my adventures and gave me 80 trips to Europe. Based in Africa for the hajj, flying Muslim pilgrims to Mecca, I came to know the magic and mystery of darkness and the importance of environmentalism. The powerful nights under blazing stars unspoiled by artificial light or electricity were astounding. It was the same out over the ocean deeps, watching icebergs bob in icy waters, or flying over the Sahara, gazing down on massive wind-carved dunes. The visuals were staggering, ravishing and rare.

“I came to realize what a collection of unique experiences and natural phenomena I had witnessed. I had my own travel company by then and led adventures to the rainforests of Central America and the Darwin research station in the Galapagos. My book, “Global: A Traveler’s Tales,” got consideration for a movie. It chronicles my journeys in Europe, the Middle East and Africa at a time when Americans were welcomed with open arms and political differences were far less significant. I’m still traveling. I have many more adventures planned, from Morocco and the Neolithic caves of France to Easter Island and a return to Australia and Oceania. I’m hoping my grandsons have the wanderlust gene.”

Interviewed by Jenna Kern – Rugile

‘I never want to go back to the way I was, closed off from connecting.’

Northport

“A mental medium is what most people are familiar with when you mention mediumship, speaking with the dead. I’m speaking to them and relaying that to the recipient. But there’s another form called physical mediumship, where spirit produces physical phenomena in a seance room.

“I work with transfiguration. We sit in the dark; some people find it creepy. They create ectoplasm, a mist. The faces of spirits come in front of me and are recognized. I have a regular group that sits with me, and five out of six fathers were seen and identified in spirit.

“I speak at libraries, colleges, I teach trance and mental mediumship at Lily Dale, about an hour from Buffalo. It’s the largest Spiritualist community in the U.S. Now I have a business, but prior to this I was practicing law in Northport.

“Like most children, when I was young, I could communicate with spirit, I just didn’t know they were spirit; I was told they were my imaginary friends. Then I forgot about it, and I went on to become an attorney like my dad.

There are people walking around that don’t realize they have it.

“My parents passed around the time I was starting to open up intuitively. I didn’t understand it. It was like being thrown in the deep end. I started reading, and then I found the spiritualist churches.

“Spiritualism uses mediumship to prove the continuity of life after the physical death of the body. It’s also a religion, a philosophy and a science. I’m ordained as a spiritualism minister, and I consider it my religion.

“When I would lose pets or people before I became a medium, I grieved and it seemed they were gone forever. When my parents passed, the experience I had with grieving their deaths wasn’t the same because I know I can connect with them. I have a grand old time with my father. A woman in a building he used to own kept seeing a spirit with a hat. I never want to go back to the way I was, closed off from connecting.

“Life has a whole new meaning. There are so many things; it’s not just speaking to the dead, it’s animal communication, healing work, trance work. There are people walking around that don’t realize they have it. That was me. There are people who have it and are frightened of it. Life without the abilities would be awful, and I want to share it.”

Interviewed by Rachel O’Brien – Morano

‘Danielle was a healthy, spunky, active 7-year-old. She went from doing cartwheels to having to relearn how to walk.’

Northport

“Danielle was a healthy, spunky, active 7-year-old. She went to camp one morning in the summer of 2019, and I got the dreaded call that she was really sick. She had a headache, something was wrong with her leg, and they had already called 911. When EMS arrived, she was unconscious.

“When my husband and I met her at the hospital, she was not responsive, but the doctors were working on her. They discovered bleeding in her brain. They brought her to Cohen Children’s Medical Center and confirmed that it was an AVM — a tangle of blood vessels. There’s pressure that builds up behind it, and the blood vessels burst. She went to emergency surgery and was in the ICU for two weeks.

“When she woke, she couldn’t move her right side. She went from doing cartwheels to having to relearn how to walk. We were just happy to hear her talk! They did another brain surgery and she was off to rehab.

“In addition to walking, she had to relearn to use her right arm, feed herself, write … normal things that you take for granted. She kept telling us she was determined to be ‘regular Danielle again.’

Her experience has helped me be a better pediatrician.

“In 2020, a checkup showed the AVM had grown back. She had another brain surgery last fall. It was a big setback, but she was determined to get back to herself. Now she’s back on the dance team doing cartwheels! It’s amazing that she’s had three brain surgeries.

“In September, she had a checkup and it was clear! She wants to be a pediatric neurosurgeon. Despite my being a pediatrician and my husband a cardiologist, I learned that doctors push for your kids, but no one can do as much as parents.

“When she went back to second grade, the doctor said she had no restrictions on the playground; however, the school said there it wasn’t safe, so she was kept inside for recess away from her friends. It was an emotional roller-coaster for her.

“In third grade, her class wrote persuasive essays. She wrote to the principal asking to fundraise for equipment for the playground for kids with disabilities. We’re very proud of her. Her experience has helped me be a better pediatrician. Our whole family has grown. It showed us something we didn’t know we had in ourselves — that we can be strong as a family.”

Interviewed by Iris Wiener

‘My long-term goals are to continue to make a difference in the lives of Long Island students.’

Northport

As a science teacher and research scientist in Brentwood Union Free School District, I’ve dedicated 20 years of my career to getting more people of color involved in the sciences, to be the voice of change and the ones moving the legislation at the state level and that people are listening to. I have a state-of-the-art research lab at the high school. They come in as 10th-graders who have never picked up any equipment and by their senior year, they’re out conducting real-world investigations.

“Since 2018, my students have been working with New York State Parks and Save the Sound to replant and restore the salt marsh in Sunken Meadow State Park. They’ve planted over 2,000 plants. This came about because while getting my masters at Stony Brook University, I worked in Madagascar for six months. It was the beginning of the rest of my life because there I saw an imminent need to help those who didn’t have the resources that we had in the U.S., both for teaching and the environment. I worked with kids in Madagascar to replant and reforest the rainforest. And 20 years later, I’m planting Spartina in a salt marsh on Long Island.

“One would say my life hasn’t changed much, but when I came back from that trip, I realized that it’s not just Madagascar that needs help. It’s right here in our own backyard. I did my student teaching in Brentwood and fell in love with the population; 57 different cultural nations represented in the student body. I took a job in Brentwood and started a research program as an afterschool initiative. That became a class and my life mission.

Here I am jumping into my research to get me out of a bad situation in my life, and that’s kind of how I see research for our students in Brentwood.

“In 2004, I was diagnosed with breast cancer at 27. What helped get me through that darkness was the science and getting my kids to answer and ask questions. From 2004 to 2006, we started pushing forward with the research program. We were always the “Bad News Bears” at the science competitions. We’d go to country clubs and compete against Roslyn, Syosset and Jericho. I was going to the Salvation Army to buy jackets for my kids so they looked like the rest. I called it the ‘Science Unfair’ because my students didn’t have the same skillset and background as everybody else.

“In 2007, I had a recurrence, and a bilateral mastectomy. I decided to finish my Ph.D. I was going through chemotherapy and in graduate school full-time and working full-time. I was having a hard time, so I just sunk myself into research. The experience was one of the most arduous of my life and the most life-changing for both me and the Brentwood program.

“In 2010, we started to win competitions. We had a recognition from the Siemens Competition, a first ever for Brentwood. In 2011, my student Samantha Garvey was doing research in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at Stony Brook. She was going to drop out because her parents were evicted. We raised money so she could stay with the program and in 2012, she was recognized as an Intel Semifinalist. She was invited to the White House and President Obama’s State of the Union Address. We were on “The Ellen Show” and “The Today Show.” It was all about how through science you can get out of a bad situation.

My true purpose is that regardless of zip code kids have the resources to do and go where they need to go. If that means trying to hold your ground and saying, ‘things need to change,’ then you need to be the voice of change.

“Here I am jumping into my research to get me out of a bad situation in my life, and that’s kind of how I see research for our students in Brentwood. For me it was a long, uphill battle. I get hit with cancer and wind up continuing to persevere. Things started to fall into place when the students were getting the recognition they deserved. Since 2010, we’ve had over 20 national winners and we’ve brought in over $20 million in college scholarships. The lab is the little gem of the district. We have kids from this program who have gone to Yale, Harvard and MIT.

“In a community like Brentwood, one of the hardest hit by COVID, you need to believe in science. Without science, I wouldn’t be standing here right now. My long-term goals are to continue to make a difference in the lives of students and focus specifically on the underrepresented community of Brentwood to showcase that with the right skills and the right people in place, we can make a difference in the lives of our youth. My true purpose is that regardless of zip code kids have the resources to do and go where they need to go. If that means trying to hold your ground and saying, ‘things need to change,’ then you need to be the voice of change.”

Interviewed by Liza Burby

‘This past year has been a gift for me and my students – giving us a place to come together and create.’

Northport

“I never planned on becoming a teacher let alone teach watercolors. For my entire professional life, I had my own marketing and advertising agency. I had longed to be creative so I designed my own line of greeting cards and thought ‘wouldn’t it be cool to use my own art?’ So, I picked up my paints and brushes and searched for watercolor classes. I didn’t feel I was learning much. I was attracted to a particular class because the description said, ‘you get a demonstration.’ I learned how important it was to watch every brushstroke because that’s how I grew as an artist and eventually into a teacher.

“About 10 years ago, the programming director of the Art League of Long Island (ALLI) noticed my work and asked me to do demos for them. After watching me demo to their students, she said I was a natural teacher. I really didn’t think I was, as I had no formal training. A short time later, one of ALLI’s teachers retired and that same lady offered his class spots to me. It was serendipitous. I didn’t see the ability in myself but, as I began to teach, I realized she was right. I decided to build my classes on what I needed as a student and didn’t get.

“I retired from my business literally the week before we went into quarantine – not knowing we would be on lockdown for over a year – to focus on my art and teaching. I took all my cancelled in-person classes online via Zoom. It turned out to be nothing short of amazing. This past year has been a gift for me and my students – giving us a place to come together and create. It offered them hope and time to focus on their own art. It’s so rewarding to see them flourish. They needed these classes and I needed to be there for them.

I didn’t see the ability in myself but, as I began to teach, I realized she was right. I decided to build my classes on what I needed as a student and didn’t get.

“Part of the virtual classroom experience is that we gain inspiration from an image, a place we’ve been to, animals, flowers, just about anything! After we’ve painted for 2 hours, the students show me their work so I can offer a constructive critique to each of them. Now, I have hundreds of paintings that need a good home. I am currently looking to align with a not-for-profit to use some paintings as a fundraiser. If I can benefit a worthy cause, it would mean so much to give back and pay it forward.”

‘When I’m an EMT, that’s my job — I’m not a theater teacher. I juggle two worlds in that capacity. It really is weird and it’s wonderful.’

Northport

“Eventually, you let the universe choose for you and I think that’s why I became a teacher and, later, an EMT as well. More than 25 years ago, I had a career as a performer. I was working in regional theaters and with international tours. When my wife and I got married we realized that to have a family we had to be in the same place at the same time, so I went to earn my master’s degree and quickly lucked out with Syosset High School (SHS) because they were looking to start a theater program.

To be able to help somebody you know in their time of need, when they’re scared, is special.

“As a theater teacher, I get to see students create and learn in a unique way. My focus has always been on giving students a solid foundation so that if they want to go into the theater business, they are able to but even if they don’t, they have a foundation in problem-solving and looking at things through a different perspective and the discipline of creating that’s going to serve them in any profession. I never directed a darn thing before I started at SHS. All of these years later, I sometimes still think I have no clue what I’m doing. Other times, I sit back on closing night of a show and I think, ‘Wow. These kids really created something and I got to be a part of that.’ I have also been an EMT for eight years. I wanted to be able to help the community and I can ride a bike with the Northport Bike Squad, so I am able to combine two things I’m good at. Since I’ve joined the department, my family has felt more connected to the community. Often I go on calls and it’s somebody we know. To be able to help somebody you know in their time of need, when they’re scared, is special. You see them look up at you and realize that you’re somebody they know so they relax because they can trust you. It’s a wonderful feeling to be able to help people in that way. In the summer I was a set medic for a couple of documentaries and commercials. I love working on the movie sets because of the atmosphere and creativity. When I’m an EMT, that’s my job – I’m not a theater teacher. I juggle two worlds in that capacity. It really is weird and it’s wonderful. I don’t have a lot of money to give to causes and support things like I would want to, so I give my time.”