"To write well, express yourself like the common people, but think like a wise man"
Aristotle
WEBSITE OF A.M. ANDINO ROCHON, WORDSMITH
Author. Reminiscence Group Leader. Speaker
A BIT ABOUT ME
Author: A.M. Andino Rochon M. A., MSW, taught, was a psychiatric therapist, and was in management. These led to teaching memoir writing, guiding reminiscence groups, grief support, and public speaking. The author, an award-winning poet and a member of Detroit Working Writers (Michigan's oldest organization of professional writers) published in newspaper columns, magazines, and academic journals. A.M. Andino Rochon earned Toastmasters International's Distinguished Toastmaster level in speaking and leadership.
FATHERLESS
2018
Angelo’s family is joyful, hard-working, devout, and kindhearted …except for Vito, the murderer. Spanning two centuries, describing Ellis Island immigration, world wars, the Great Depression, national prosperity, and recessions, FATHERLESS hails reconciliation after a fifty-year feud. It features Italian customs, cooking, celebrations. Genograms display six resilient generations. Born to a widow who was widowed again, Angelo helped raise his half siblings. Sicilian immigrants in steel-city Youngstown, Ohio cherished this thoughtful boy. World War II brought Angelo to Algonac, Michigan, as a leader of men. Hope and love were his signature features. The village embraced him, commending his kindness. Wealthy by now, haunted by the memory of hunger, he built a church and treasured his family, who soon became fatherless. Click on Available on Amazon to preview FATHERless.
THE PIECE TO PEACE CANCER QUILT
2019
Piece to Peace Cancer Quilt, nonfiction, is a remembrance. It celebrates recovery, resilience, and honor. The Piece to Peace Cancer Quilt is in panels, like the Alzheimer’s Quilt and the Aids Quilt. They do not cover. All three quilts share the mission to comfort those affected by major
ailments.
However, the Cancer Quilt is unique. It offers personalized connection to participants with the compassionate listeners I train based on my experience as a psychiatric therapist. While each of us listen to participants individually, quilters immediately sew on the tributes participants just penned on swatches. The astute record system enables past participants to easily locate their tributes by panel and number. Many of them return whenever the quilt is on display. Some touch their quilted swatch as if to reach out to loved ones honored or to celebrate their own survival from cancer.
This is the heart and the soul of the matter. Piece by piece leads to a place of peace.
The quilt is both a display and a work in progress. The Piece to Peace Quilters expand the massive quilt, adding more tribute swatches and cathartic encounters at its many expositions throughout our region. The annual Algonac Michigan Art Fair always features the quilt along the St Clair River as its border with Canada.
The National Association of Social Workers chose me to present in September 2019 at their National Convention. My topic is The Power of Reminiscence on Brain Functioning.
An International Quilters Conference features the Piece to Peace Cancer Quilt in October 2019.
