We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rose Garlasco, Phd. a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Rose, appreciate you joining us today. Can you tell us a bit about who your hero is and the influence they’ve had on you?

My father, Fabian Helmer, was my hero. Our special father-daughter relationship began the day I was born and ended the day he died.

He was an ethnic German immigrant, born in Romania. After World War II he came to the United States, leaving his country behind. Although he was born in Romania, and forced to fight for the German Army during World War II. He was sent to the Russian front for almost two years and endured many hardships during that time; lack of supplies, lack of food and the bitter cold.

My father eventually met my mother. She too was an ethnic German from Yugoslavia. She, along with my grandmother and brother were in Russian labor camps for almost three years. My parents found each other, after immigrating to Chicago, IL, married and started a new life.

He was a strong man, a hard worker. His job as a janitor allowed him to be home, as my mother worked full-time in a factory. My father sent me off to school in the morning, prepared lunch for me, and was there when I returned home in the afternoon. He drove me to skating lessons and German school. I loved being around him. He gave me his undivided attention and unconditional love. He made me feel special and instilled confidence in me and was always supportive. Most of all he listened and gave me his honest opinion. My hero!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I was extremely fortunate to have two very successful careers, which I felt passionate about. They were focused on working with adolescents and their families.

After receive my Masters in Social Service Administration from the University of Chicago, I spent the next ten years working in various social service agencies. My experience working in child welfare exposed me to youth who were victims of abuse and neglect. I provided counseling to these families to address the underlying issues with the goal of providing families with strategies and coping skills to make them less dysfunctional. It also gave me the opportunity to work within the child welfare system, court system, school system and police department. I was an advocate for these children and worked with their parents to stop the abuse/neglect. It was a challenging job, but I was passionate, energetic and determined to provide them with alternatives to create a positive home environment.

Eventually, I decided to work in the school system, specifically the high school. My passion was adolescents. I believed they were resilient even if they had obstacles. My goal was to get them to think about their decisions and assist them with making better decisions that would keep them out of trouble in their family, the school and the community.

I went on to receive my PhD. in Educational Leadership from Loyola University Chicago. I spent 25 years as an Assistant Principal in 4 different schools and I loved every minute of it! I was energized interacting with students and staff.

I retired in 2016. With time on my hands, I turned to writing. I’ve written two award winning essays that have been published and just completed a memoir: “Just a Little Off: A Memoir. Growing Up First Generation American in an Ethnic German Family”.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My memoir that I just published was very dear to me because the focus was growing up in a family that had an unspoken traumatic past that I was not a part of. I always felt left out and “just a little off” which is the title of the book. They never went into detail about the extent of their losses and how it impacted them, which left me confused and wondering.

I straddled two cultures and my desire was to be just like my American friends, which caused some conflict with my family. My parents wanted to preserve their past and I mostly rejected it because it wasn’t my past.

However, as an adult I acknowledged there was a story to tell. Since members of my family of origin have passed away, I wanted future generations to know my experience since I was the first born in this country. There was also a history component never mentioned in books or courses about the atrocities of World War II outside of the Holocaust.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

I wish I had more meaningful conversations with my family about their past when I was an adult and they were still alive. I would ask a lot more questions and I would listen more.

I understood Post Traumatic Stress Disorder but for some reason never labeled my family members as struggling with it. They didn’t want to dwell on their past, they just wanted to move forward. It was as if they were running from a silent stalker. What I didn’t know anything about, but discovered while writing, was the concept of Generational Trauma. This type of trauma seeps through generations and effects DNA so people can experience trauma’s effects without experiencing the actual trauma first hand. Once researching this, so much more made sense to me, not only about my family, but about myself.