Voice & Vision Blog

Overcomers: Escaping Generational Poverty

Written by Kathryn Lerro on June 19, 2015.

Jean grew up poor; her parents were what today would be called “working poor.” They worked hard but only earned enough to get by. They were kind, generous people but did not encourage Jean to rise above their own meager means. Jean’s mother was killed in a car accident when Jean was only 15. Jean suffered from poor self-esteem, which seems to have caused her to fall prey to abusive men. When she married the first—within a year after her mother’s death—her siblings disapproved of her choice and...

The Staycation

Written by Kathryn Lerro on June 5, 2015.

When my husband and I moved back to Philly after 24 years elsewhere, it wasn’t really by choice. I mean it was—in that no one forced us to move—but Philly wasn’t a place either of us ever thought we’d live again. We were used to living in a suburban setting—having some air around us and a bit of separation from neighbors. But our mothers were doing poorly and we felt like being near them was the right thing to do. So we moved. Shortly after coming back here, I went to a farewell party for a new...

You Don’t Have to Catch It!

Written by Kathryn Lerro on May 22, 2015.

I was having the most perfect day. Believe it or not, this most perfect day included having a diagnostic test that I’d been told was dreadful—an EMG, or electromyogram. My doctor warned me not to read the horror stories about it on the Internet, so I didn’t. I did ask my daughter if she could get time off from work to go with me. I was having the test done at the University of Pennsylvania, where she works. She made arrangements to take a few hours off; I picked her up first thing in the...

The Worth of Water

Written by Kathryn Lerro on May 12, 2015.

Most of us know that the human body is around 75 percent water. What we may not know is that not drinking enough water to maintain that 75 percent can cause illness—serious illness; so says Dr. F. Batmanghelidj, M.D. in his book, You’re Not Sick, You’re Thirsty. His research suggests that the cause of many serious diseases is “unintentional chronic dehydration.” “Dr. B’s” back-story is riveting; he was a political prisoner in Iran for two and a half years. Late one night an inmate was carried...

Overcomers: Parenting a Child with Asperger’s Syndrome

Written by Kathryn Lerro on April 18, 2015.

Amber had never heard of Asperger’s when she realized something wasn’t quite right with her then three-year-old son, Taye. Their pediatrician repeatedly told her not to worry; but as a mother, Amber knew better. She spent the next three years scanning the Internet, trying to figure out why her son was so different from other children. When she heard someone mention Asperger’s on a TV show, she immediately went to the computer and searched for the symptoms. What she read made the pieces fit,...

Overcomers: Escaping Generational Poverty

The Staycation

You Don’t Have to Catch It!

The Worth of Water

Overcomers: Parenting a Child with Asperger’s Syndrome

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