14 / matters magazine / fall 2017 The Healing Village Local women help a neighbor embrace life again BY ELLEN DONKER Diane Thomson, Hilda Silverman, Leslie Goldman, Linda Hom, and Karen Herrera. I n life, we don’t always get to choose our cir- cumstances. A tragedy can visit us over which we have no control. Such was the case for art- ist and musician Leslie Goldman, who sud- denly lost her husband five years ago, leaving her to raise their two children on her own. Today, she sees her life and circumstances as a gift. But that posture was hard won. Goldman retreated for three long years into a world of depres- sion. Desperate to emerge from that dark time, she credits her come back to a group of local women that she chose to “get me off the couch and back into life.” Casting back, Goldman recalls being at home on a beautiful day in August 2012, grateful that her husband, Chris Nadler, had taken their two middle school-aged children to the Poconos for a weekend. A self-described workaholic, Chris was a marketing executive whose job at Hot 97 kept him working grueling hours, so this trip was a rare occasion to get some dad-time with his kids. He was partway through a group hike after a long bike ride when he collapsed from a heart attack in front of his son. Medics tried to revive him, but in vain. Naturally, the tragedy upended Goldman’s life. Through all the distress, she did her best to keep the children on a regular routine and provide the sup- port they needed. But while they were at school, she lived life out on the couch, barely able to take care of herself. Depression, which she had battled over the years, took hold along with an inability to handle the details of life. She felt that she wasn’t getting better despite the