Stroke survivor Liz Gilberg. (Photo courtesy of Liz Gilberg) Elizabeth Gilberg recently picked up a few new skills. At 50, she’s learned to knit and is relearning how to quilt. She took lessons in cross-country skiing and tried her hand at beekeeping. Bike riding didn’t go so well, but she’s game to keep trying. Like…
Uncontrolled high blood pressure and kidney disease led to a kidney transplant for music producer Brian Kennedy. (Photo courtesy of Brian Kennedy) Brian Kennedy was living his dream. A piano prodigy, he moved from his hometown of Kansas City, Missouri, to Los Angeles in 2003, when he was 20. He started out as a musician…
Transient ischemic attack survivor Dawn Turnage. (Photo courtesy of Dawn Turnage) Exhausted at the end of a workday, Dawn Turnage plopped into a comfortable chair on her patio to soak up some sun before going to bed early. Her phone buzzed. It was a FaceTime call from her sister, April Washington. Washington was calling because…
Heart attack survivor Dottie Lewis. (Photo courtesy of Dottie Lewis) Just a few days after Dottie Lewis and her husband, Wayne, returned from vacation to their home in Plymouth, Massachusetts, she started feeling poorly. This was 2019, a year before COVID-19 shut down travel and before face masks on planes. Dottie often caught a bug…
Congenital heart defect survivor Leo Strauss (right) and his mom, Rachel, at Leo’s 5th birthday party. (Photo courtesy of the Strauss family) Six months after Rachel and Levi Strauss married on the coldest Valentine’s Day in Detroit history, they learned they were going to have a baby. At their home in Houston, Levi helped satisfy…
Heart attack survivor Justin Ballard. (Photo courtesy of Justin Ballard) Justin Ballard of Prairie Grove, Arkansas, stared at the photos in disbelief. “Do I really look that big?” he thought. The pictures came from a joyous occasion – Christmas Day 2019, when Kelsey, the oldest of his three children, had gotten engaged. The couple set…
Stroke survivor and theater director Victoria Shepherd on the set of a play she is directing this year. (Photo courtesy of Victoria Shepherd) To celebrate her 50th birthday, Victoria Shepherd was pulling out all the stops. She was in her 30th year as a freelance director in Toronto, so the party would begin at her…
Heart disease survivor and nurse Marilyn Rantz (right) at an aging-in-place community in Columbia, Missouri. (Photo courtesy of Marilyn Rantz) Over five decades in nursing, Marilyn Rantz has done it all. She’s gone from working one-on-one with patients and serving as an administrator to spending the last 30 years working as a professor and researcher….
Stroke survivor John Cathey (left) with his wife, Paula. (Photo courtesy of the Cathey family) While a worker cleaned out the septic system at John Cathey’s house in Murray, Kentucky, John was down in the crawl space checking the pipes. When it came time to exit, he pushed his legs to scoot out. His left…
Heart attack survivor Tammy Spencer Bey (left) and her husband, Barata, are coaches of the Pittsburgh Passion football team. (Photo courtesy of Pittsburgh Passion) Throughout every stage of her life, Tammy Spencer Bey has defined herself as an athlete. She played softball from a young age through high school. In college, Tammy was on a…