A crisis can turn a family’s life upside down in a matter of minutes. The impact can be devastating, but when a community gets involved, their response can often be inspiring and life-changing. Kaylee Rivers was in kindergarten in 2008 when she was diagnosed with Stage 4 Neuroblastoma, a severe form of cancer that affects [...]
It was an unusually warm Saturday in February 2006, so Brian Richardson took his 22-month-old daughter Alexandra to the Newbridge Road Park in Bellmore to play. They had a wonderful day together. Alexandra’s mother, Danna remembers, “She went to bed that night a happy little girl.” The next morning Danna peeked in on her daughter [...]
Every Saturday for the past 11 years Mary Joesten of Oceanside makes her way to the Faith Mission Outreach Center (FMOC) located in the basement of Our Holy Redeemer Roman Catholic Church in Freeport. She gets there by 9 a.m. and stays until her work is done. When I arrived at the FMOC, the morning’s [...]
When Mary Strohm died from tuberculosis at the age of 42, she left behind a husband and six children. The family was literally broken apart, and her children were raised by different family members throughout Long Island. Usually rituals and traditions help bring a family together, but the Strohm family’s bond came from something else: [...]
