Dear Colleagues,
We have been approached by Robin Marantz Henig, a reporter for the New York Times who wants to write a cover story on adult sibling conflict and elder mediation for the Sunday New York Times Magazine. See her letter of introduction below.
 
Robin is looking for a family in which the adult siblings are (or were at one time) in conflict over eldercare matters, driving concerns, estate distribution, inheritance or other issues such as perceptions of fairness or parental affection.  Ideally the family would have participated in elder mediation, now or in the past, but that is not necessary. Nor is it necessary for Robin to talk to everyone in the family (though that, too, would be ideal).  For this story, the Times would be willing to protect the identity of the family should they wish it. 

If you know of any family that might be willing to speak with Robin, please let them know that she would be interested in speaking with some or all of the family members.  
 
Should you wish to explore the concept further, please contact Robin directly by Friday, February 25.
 
Best,
 
Arline Kardasis, Blair Trippe, Crystal Thorpe and Rikk Larsen
Elder Decisions
30 Walpole Street
Norwood, MA 02062
617-621-7009
Info@ElderDecisions.com
 
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LETTER FROM ROBIN MARANTZ HENIG:

 

The partners at Elder Decisions have graciously agreed to help me with the cover story I'm writing for The New York Times Magazine about adult sibling relationships.  My goal is to write a long (8000 words) narrative piece that follows one family in which the adult siblings are now, or once were, in conflict. It would be nice, but not necessary, if the family has used elder mediation (something that many of our readers might not have even heard of).  

 

The family's story will form the scaffolding for the article, in which I also plan to explore recent psychological studies of adult sibling relationships, as well as the new field of elder mediation.  It would be best if I could follow a single family and talk to everyone, siblings and parents alike. But if only a few siblings will talk to me, I can restructure the article a bit.

 

There is some urgency to my request -- if I haven't found siblings willing to be profiled by this coming Friday, Feb. 25, my editor might tell me to stop looking and not write the article at all.

 

I realize it might seem scary to agree to being profiled in this way and I'd be happy to talk with you about ground rules that would make you feel comfortable. Best for me is to make an arrangement by email for a good time for us to talk -- robinhenig@nasw.org -- and then I can phone you at a time that's convenient.

 

I also thought it might be helpful for you to see two articles that involved families who opened their lives to me at especially fraught times and were comfortable with how I treated them. In the first, I spent a full week, pretty much full-time, with a critically ill young woman and her parents, who had come to NIH to try to figure out what was wrong with her. I spent time, too, with two other patients (both infants) and their parents, before, during, and after their week-long examination as part of the Undiagnosed Diseases Program at NIH, though the article ended up focusing on only a single patient.
http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=8dh55ubab&et=1104621211946&s=...

In the second article, I followed a hospice nurse on his rounds in Manhattan, spoke to many terminally ill patients over the course of several months, and focused on one woman, Goldie Gold, who died before the article appeared.
http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=8dh55ubab&et=1104621211946&s=...==

 

You can find more about me, if you're so inclined, at my web site, www.robinhenig.com.

I look forward to hearing from you so I can tell you more!

 

ROBIN MARANTZ HENIG
Contributing Writer
The New York Times Magazine
106 Morningside Drive
New York, New York 10027
212.932.8319
cell 347.563.1042
robinhenig@nasw.org
on the web at www.robinhenig.com