Meryl L Wilens

Hardships and Blessing Growing Up on Chicago's Westside Meryl L Wilens

PERHAPS WE ALL NEED TWO FAMILIES: the one we are born into and the one that finds us when we really searching for it.....



In Chicago in July 1959, eleven-year-old Michael Friedman roamed the hot summer streets to hide from home. Any place was better than the dark apartment where his mother suffered mysterious ailments and was lost in her own world. Anywhere was better than home when his father was there. Despite working two jobs, David Friedman felt financial ruin creeping ever closer and he took his anger and frustration out on his wife and his children. All of the Friedmans really, really, needed some mazel, some luck, and soon.



Then Michael got into a fight with some Italian kids on the next street...and life finally began to change...for all of them.



Hardships and Blessings is a tale of two parents overcoming sudden family crises by combining their strengths to support all the children they love.