Source: The Buffalo News / May 11, 2016
Long before internet dating sites, Michele Brown carved out a career as a different kind of matchmaker.
She finds friends for people coping with mental illness.
Over the past 31 years, she has found friends for hundreds of such people.
A few success stories:
• A woman who had been in the Buffalo Psychiatric Center for years before Brown helped find her a friend, her first in 20 years.
• A man in his early 20s who approached Brown at an event and asked, “Could you just find a person to go to the movies with me?”
• Two professionals, both with bipolar disorder, who were matched with volunteer friends and then met each other at a party. They later married and started a family.
• And Kayliee Glavina, now 21, who was really depressed and almost suicidal as a high school senior, before matching up with Karen Bartkowiak, director of youth services at Compeer.
They see each other once a week, for coffee and doughnuts, long walks and lots of advice. Her friend also helped Glavina with her baby shower before the birth of her adorable redheaded daughter, Minerva, eight months ago. And they text and talk frequently, sharing such random events as Glavina spotting a pair of high heels made out of cork.
In short, they’re friends.
Read the full article at The Buffalo News.