Here’s a tiny glimpse into my life in 1984: I have moved to Stamford CT with my two children, aged 8 and 12, and a just-married-to second husband. I finished my PhD coursework at the University of Illinois but have not yet begun…
In 1984, Rita and her husband Brad welcomed a healthy baby boy named Brandon into their family. Only five years later, Brandon began a 20-year battle with brain cancer. They watched as their son became increasingly mentally and physically handicapped….
Linda Atwell and her strong-willed daughter, Lindsey, a high functioning young adult with intellectual disabilities, always had a complicated relationship. But when Lindsey graduated from high school at nineteen, she got a job at a Goodwill and she moved into a cottage…
![Your Authentic Life: Nothing [Bad] Between Us](https://marlenafiol.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/023-610x424-1.jpeg)
On a frigid winter day exactly 109 years ago, my father John Rempel Schmidt was born in a small farmhouse in a Plautdietsch (Low-German) Mennonite community in south central Kansas. I dedicate my very first podcast to my father’s memory. The show “We Are…
I’ve been reflecting on changes since Christmases past. That’s Ed and I in front of our tree in 2013 in the photo above. We did Christmas BIG. Only six years later: We’re still having fun. …
My Mother, Gazing at her Youth It seems the invisibility curse of the elderly is especially harsh on women. A recent article by Ann Brenoff in AARP pointed out that women are increasingly unseen, marginalized by the younger, and left feeling that they no longer have…