A COVID Love Story: Detroit Couple Reflect on How a Difficult Year Brought Them Closer Together
When they first met, it didn’t take long for Namira and Omar Anani to fall in love. For Omar it was instant, but for Namira, it was Omar’s small acts of kindness that made her realize he was the one.
They got married in November of 2019, but just four months into their marriage, their busy lives changed as Namira, a non-profit lawyer and Omar, a restaurateur, were faced with a slew of challenges brought on by the arrival of COVID-19.
They came to StoryCorps to reflect on a difficult year and how it ultimately brought them closer together.
Photo: Namira and Omar Anani at their wedding in 2019. Courtesy of Namira Islam Anani.
Top Photo: Namira and Omar Anani in 2020. Courtesy of Namira Islam Anani.
This interview was recorded in partnership with the Arab American National Museum. It is part of the Anwar Collection of Muslim Voices through StoryCorps’ American Pathways initiative. This initiative is made possible by the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art and an Anonymous Foundation. Additional support is provided by the Stuart Family Foundation. It will be archived at the Library of Congress.
Originally aired February 19th, 2021, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
Local Treasures
Oftentimes, it’s the little things that make a house feel like a home, or a couple of blocks feel like a neighborhood. But mostly, it’s the people that really give a place its heart. People like sanitation workers Angelo Bruno and Eddie Nieves, who spent almost a decade working together on the same garbage route in Manhattan. While they were hauling trash in the West Village, their personalities became indispensable to the community around them.
Photo: Angelo Bruno and Eddie Nieves at their StoryCorps interview in 2010. By Michael Garofalo for StoryCorps
Next, we meet another dynamic duo—Sharon and Larry Adams. In 1997, Sharon moved back to her hometown of Milwaukee, Wisconsin and into the house where she grew up. It had good bones, but also needed some T.L.C. That’s when Larry Adams, an electrician (and the man who became Sharon’s husband), entered the picture.
After completing several projects around the house, the couple’s biggest undertaking came when they turned their attention to other homes in the Lindsay Heights area of Milwaukee.
Inspired by Sharon’s memories of her once close-knit community, they established Walnut Way, a nonprofit dedicated to renovating and revitalizing their neighborhood. Since 2000, they’ve built and restored more than 100 homes and transformed over 20 lots into gardens and orchards.
Photo: Sharon and Larry Adams in the house where their nonprofit, Walnut Way, is based. Photo by Adam Carr.
Leverett, Massachusetts is a rural town of about 1,800 people. When the pandemic hit in early 2020, Leverett— like most places— went into lockdown. Jinny Savolainen, a longtime resident, wanted to do something meaningful with her time. Quarantine was especially isolating for her. In 2019, Jinny lost her daughter. And when the pandemic hit, she lost her job.
So she sent an email to the town listserv asking if anyone wanted to record remote StoryCorps interviews about their life during COVID. What started with a simple question ended in a collection of more than a dozen recorded interviews, and a little portrait of the people and places that make Leverett unique.
Photo: Jinny Savolainen standing in the garden of her home in Leverett, MA. Courtesy of Jinny Savolainen.
And finally, we spend some time with Scott Macaulay. Back in 1985, Scott’s parents were going through a difficult divorce, and he found himself alone on Thanksgiving. That year, he decided to cook dinner for other people who had nowhere else to go; a tradition that’s continued for the last 35 years.
But in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced him to find new ways of connecting with folks near and far. Instead of hosting his usual gathering, he partnered with a local restaurant to offer free meals, and handed out groceries from the window of his vacuum repair shop—Macaulay’s House of Vacuums.
He also sat down with his friend Loretta Saint-Louis over StoryCorps Connect to talk about how they first met, and his advice for folks who—especially during the holidays—may be struggling with distance.
Photo: Scott Macaulay and Loretta Saint-Louis after their StoryCorps interview in Melrose, MA on November 6, 2020. By Alanna Kouri and Loretta Saint-Louis for StoryCorps.
Top photo: Artwork by Lindsay Mound.
At First Glance
A man to stand with and love.
Colleen Kelly Starkloff & Meaghan Starkloff Breitenstein
“I knew when I met Dad that this is a man who I could stand with and love.”
Max Starkloff was a giant of a man, especially in the eyes of his family. When he was in his early 20s, a near-fatal car accident left him quadriplegic and living in a nursing home. It was there that he met his future wife, Colleen Kelly Starkloff.
From the first moment that he came into her office, Colleen knew that Max was a man she could – and did – happily stand beside, overcoming obstacles and building the life they envisioned having together.
After his passing, Colleen came to StoryCorps with their daughter, Meaghan Starkloff Breitenstein to discuss the warmth and love Max brought into their lives.
Listen to Colleen and Meaghan’s original StoryCorps interview.
Para subtítulos en español, haga click en el ícono de YouTube en la esquina derecha, y escoja “Spanish” bajo la opción de “settings” y “subtitles/CC.
First Comes Love, Then Comes StoryCorps
This week on the StoryCorps podcast, we’re bringing you some of our favorite love stories.
First up, Julia and Joel Helfman. They met in the 1940’s, in their early teens, when Julia moved into an apartment in the West Bronx that was across the street from Joel’s apartment. They became fast friends, and over time, their friendship evolved into a romance. The two got married just a month shy of Julia’s 19th birthday. They came to StoryCorps right before their 70th wedding anniversary to remember how it all began.
Photo: Julia and Joel Helfman on their wedding day in November 1949. Courtesy of the Helfman family.
Geographically, our next couple couldn’t have been further apart. In January 2007, Rachel P. Salazar was living in Bangkok, Thailand. Ruben P. Salazar was in Waco, Texas. They didn’t know the other one existed. But with nearly identical email addresses, a small typo meant they wouldn’t be strangers for long.
Photo: (Left) The email that brought Reuben and Rachel together. (Right) Reuben and Rachel Salazar at their StoryCorps interview in Texas. 2010. By Virgina Lora for StoryCorps
This love story started with a song. It was Brooklyn in the late 1950s. Jay McKnight and his friends spent summer evenings outside, singing a cappella. One night, Jay caught the ear of a girl named Andrea, and she caught his eye. They came to StoryCorps to talk about what happened next.
Photo: James McKnight and Andrea McKnight at their StoryCorps interview in New York City, NY. By John White for StoryCorps.
We end with Mike Rudulph and Neil Rafferty. Mike grew up near Birmingham, Alabama and enlisted in the Marines when he was 20 years old. At the time, he hoped that the military environment would bring him the sense of purpose he had been missing.
This was in 2000, during the era of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” when LGBTQ people in the military couldn’t serve openly.
Mike went on his first deployment to Iraq in 2003. When he got home, he met the man who would later become his husband, Neil Rafferty. They came to StoryCorps to remember how they got together, and what’s made them stay together.
Photo: Mike Rudulph and Neil Rafferty in 2019. Courtesy of Mike Rudulph.
Top photo: Artwork by Lindsay Mound
Released on February 9, 2021.
I Found My Lighthouse
On this episode of the StoryCorps podcast, we’re exploring hope: where it comes from, what it feels like, and how it changes people.
We start with a conversation between Ellen Hughes and Keith Miller. Ellen and Keith first met in December 2018, at the Loyola University Medical Center, outside of Chicago, Illinois.
Ellen had just arrived at the emergency room with her 33-year old son, Walker, who has autism. She brought him in after he had a bad reaction to a new medication—instead of calming him down, the medication did the opposite. Walker, who is minimally verbal, was becoming more agitated, and subsequently bit Ellen. That’s when Public Safety Sergeant Keith Miller offered a creative and unexpected solution.
Photo: Keith Miller and Ellen Hughes at the Chicago StoryBooth in February 2019. Photo by Rocio Santos for StoryCorps.
Next, we meet Derrick and Raymond Storms. Anyone with siblings will tell you that fighting is par for the course, but the fights between Derrick and his younger brother Raymond were intense. “There’s still probably a hole where you threw me through the wall, right by the TV, and Dad never fixed years later,” Raymond said to Derrick during their StoryCorps interview in New York.
The brothers grew up in an unstable home in Florida, and dealt with experience in vastly different ways. Derrick became angry, and directed a lot of his anger towards Raymond.
After high school, the brothers continued to drift in two different directions. Derrick joined the military, and Raymond became a professional opera singer and reiki practitioner. It wasn’t until Derrick was deployed to Iraq that their relationship started to show some promise. At StoryCorps, they talked about how they reclaimed their brotherhood.
Photo: Raymond Storms and Derrick Storms at their StoryCorps interview on January 10, 2020. By Rochelle Kwan for StoryCorps
Next, we hear from Lisa Garzone and Megan Smith. Lisa and Megan were both in love with the same man, John Joyce, but at very different times in his life.
Lisa married John in 1994. They had 4 children together, but their marriage ended as a result of John’s struggle with alcoholism. After they divorced, John also struggled with homelessness, but eventually got back on his feet. It was during this time that he met Megan.
In 2013, John died from cancer. Lisa and Megan were both at the funeral—meeting each other for the first time. A year later, they came to StoryCorps to talk about the unlikely friendship that developed between them.
Photo: Lisa Garzone and Megan Smith at their StoryCorps interview in Pawtucket, Rhode Island in 2014. By Christina Stanton for StoryCorps.
Finally, we hear from social worker Robert Sanchez and Fred Davie.
Robert and Fred first met in 1998. At the time, Robert was serving a 15 year sentence for a first-time, nonviolent drug offense at New York’s Sing Sing Correctional Facility.
Fred, a Presbyterian minister, was visiting the prison—sitting in on a class that was part of their Master’s Program. Robert was in that same class, working towards his degree in theology.
At StoryCorps, Robert and Fred remember their first meeting, and how their friendship continued to grow, especially after Robert’s release.
Photo: Fred Davie and Robert Sanchez in 2016 at their StoryCorps interview in New York City. Photo by Jud Esty-Kendall for StoryCorps.
Top photo: Artwork by Lindsay Mound.
Released on February 2, 2021.
A Spoonful Of Sugar: How A Vaccine Inspired A Disney Classic
Jeffrey Sherman was around 5 years old in 1962 when he came home one day and found his father at home, looking depressed. Jeffrey’s father was the late Robert B. Sherman, one half of the Sherman Brothers, the songwriting duo behind many of Walt Disney’s classic films.
Robert and his brother, Richard, were in the process of writing songs for the Mary Poppins classic film and had a favorite piece called “The Eyes of Love.” Unfortunately, actress Julie Andrews didn’t like the song and Walt Disney had asked them to go back to the drawing board and come back with something more in line with the philosophy of Mary Poppins. The new phrases they tried kept falling flat. The Sherman Brothers were in low spirits.
But the conversation Robert had with 5-year old Jeffrey after he arrived home from school changed that.
In this remembrance of his father, Jeffrey, who is now 63, recorded for StoryCorps from his home in West Hills, California, where he spoke with his wife Wendy Liebman, 59, about how that day he inadvertently helped spark the creation of one of the most famous songs in the American canon.
Top Photo: A 5-year-old Jeffrey Sherman is pictured with his father, songwriter Robert Sherman, in the early 1960s. Courtesy of Jeffrey Sherman.
Bottom Photo: A Mary Poppins song book from Jeffrey Sherman’s childhood, with special dedication from the Sherman Brothers. Robert Sherman’s dedication reads, “Jeff —Thanks for ‘A Spoonful of Sugar’ and thanks for being my son! Dad.”
Originally aired January 8, 2021, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
Things Are Looking Up
To kick off the new year, on this episode of the StoryCorps podcast, we’re celebrating change; specifically, job changes.
We’re starting off with Drew Lanham. Growing up, Drew was always fascinated by the birds on and around his family’s farm in South Carolina. After an unfulfilling career in engineering, he decided a change of pace was in order and pivoted to the calling that he always felt inside. Today, Drew is a zoologist and ornithologist, and spends many of his days in the company of birds.
At StoryCorps, he spoke with his friend John Lane about the childhood that helped his career take flight.
Photo: Drew Lanham (right) and John Lane at their StoryCorps interview in Clemson, South Carolina on December 9, 2019. By Eric Rodgers for StoryCorps.
Next, we hear from Barbara Abelhauser. For 14 years, Barb got up each day and went to work in an office. But she hated her job, and finally, one day she quit, reasoning, “I could get hit by a bus tomorrow. And if that happens, I want to have woken up that day and not thought, I don’t want to go to work.”
So Barb decided to become a bridgetender. Sitting in a booth over the Ortega River in Jacksonville, Florida, she opened and closed the bridge to allow boats to pass from one side to the other. Much smaller than her previous office, but with windows surrounding her, she had “the most gorgeous view in the entire city.”
Photo: Barb Ablehauser. Courtesy of Barb Abelhauser
Barb didn’t expect to be a bridgetender for long, but for the next 14 years, she watched the sun rise and set on the river from her new perch. She now documents her observations and experiences on her blog, “The View from a Drawbridge.” In 2014, Barb left Jacksonville and moved to Seattle, Washington, where she continues her work as a bridgetender.
Top photo: Artwork by Lindsay Mound.
Released on January 5, 2021.
Note: In this piece we say that Barb was 51 when she quit her job. She was actually 36.
After a Century of Living, Lessons From a Woman Who Was Larger Than Life
As of the end of 2020, more than 300,000 people in the United States have died after contracting COVID-19.
In this story, we remember one of those people: a grandmother and great-grandmother who was a larger-than-life character from a small town in northern New York.
Rose Pearl Liscum on her 96th birthday. Photo courtesy of Shelly Noti.
Rosella Pearl Liscum grew up near Ogdensburg, New York, where she died the day after Christmas at the age of 101.
Back in 2012, she sat down for StoryCorps with her daughter, Marlene Watson, to talk about some of her most treasured relationships, including how she met her boyfriend, Bill “Wild Bill” Cota.
Rose Liscum and her boyfriend, “Wild Bill” Cota, dancing at the Heuvelton, NY AMVETS, where they first met. Photo courtesy of Marlene Watson.
Top Photo: Marlene Watson and Rose Pearl Liscum at their StoryCorps interview in Rensselaer Falls, NY on July 9, 2012. By Jasmyn Morris for StoryCorps.
Editor’s note: Jasmyn Morris, who co-produced this interview, is related to some of the subjects in this story. Rose Liscum was her distant cousin, Gert Uhl was Morris’ great-grandmother, and Joyce is her grandmother.
Originally aired January 1, 2021, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
Saying Goodbye To The Great Ones
In lots of ways, this year has been a year of goodbyes. Many of us have said goodbye to colleagues and teammates, friends and family, leaders and advocates. On this episode of the StoryCorps podcast, we’re honoring some of the legends we lost in 2020; people who, even in times of struggle, lived their lives courageously.
Sissy Goodwin was one of them. Despite being a Vietnam veteran and longtime educator, Sissy’s heroism became synonymous with his fashion sense: he was a man from Wyoming who liked to wear dresses. He was also a loving husband and devoted father. Sissy died in March, of stage IV brain cancer. But back in 2015, he came StoryCorps with his wife, Vickie, to talk about the early days of their relationship and what made their marriage work.
Photo: Vickie and Sissy Goodwin at their StoryCorps interview in Douglas, Wyoming in 2015. Photo by Luis Gallo for StoryCorps.
Congressman John Lewis was no stranger to the spotlight. A civil rights activist and freedom fighter for more than 60 years, his life’s work was dedicated to building a more just and humane country. Throughout his career, he often cited Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as being one of his greatest influences. In 2019, Rep. Lewis came to StoryCorps with his friend Valerie Jackson to remember how some of his childhood heroes helped him become a leader in his own right.
Photo: John Lewis and Valerie Jackson at their StoryCorps interview in Atlanta, Georgia on February 20, 2018. By Daniel Horowitz Garcia for StoryCorps.
The late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg may have been small in stature, but even at 5’1″, her steadfast advocacy for gender equality made her a giant. Perhaps none knew this better than the people she fought for — people like Sharron Cohen.
In the early 1970s, Sharron Cohen (then Sharron Frontiero) was a newlywed Air Force Lieutenant who, after being denied benefits that were offered to her male colleagues, sued the federal government for discrimination on the basis of sex.
Her lawyer was Joe Levin, but the case also caught the attention of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who was working at the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project at the time. In 1973, Levin and Ginsburg argued the case — which came to be known as Frontiero v. Richardson — in front of the Supreme Court. Decades later, Sharron spoke with her son Nathan to remember the late justice.
Photo: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg with former plaintiff Sharron Cohen, her husband David Cohen, and son Nathan on the steps of the Supreme Court building in 1999. Courtesy of Sharron Cohen.
We end with the words of Navy veteran Joseph Patton, who joined the military in 1955. At the time, homosexuality was banned in the military, forcing many gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals to serve in silence. Although Joseph was’t out at the time, he was targeted because of who he hung out with, and was eventually kicked out of the Navy on the grounds that they thought he was gay.
In the 1970s, Joseph fought to get his “undesirable discharge” upgraded to honorable, and finally received the service benefits he’d always deserved.
Photo: Joseph Patton, who recorded in Santa Monica, California with StoryCorps in 2019. Photo by Jud Esty-Kendall.
Top photo: Artwork by Lindsay Mound.
Released on December 29, 2020
Now In His 80s, Gay Veteran Remembers Getting Kicked Out Of The Navy Despite Being “A Perfect Sailor”
When Joseph Patton joined the Navy in 1955, he had to serve in silence. At the time, gay, lesbian, and bisexual people could not be open while in the military.
Decades later, at the age of 81, Joseph recorded for StoryCorps from his home in Santa Monica, California, where he spoke about his service and how he was eventually kicked out of the Navy due to the assumption that he was “homosexual.”
In the 1970s, Joseph fought to get his undesirable discharge upgraded to honorable, which then allowed him to receive benefits for his service.
Joseph died in 2020. He was 83 years old.
Top Photo: Joseph Patton, who recorded in Santa Monica, California with StoryCorps in 2019. Photo by Jud Esty-Kendall.
Bottom Photo: Joseph Patton in the mid-1950s, while serving in the US Navy. Photo courtesy of Joseph Patton.
Originally aired December 26, 2020, on NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday.