I was raised and educated in Philadelphia. I was a practicing pediatrician for 50 years, the first two decades as a community pediatrician in Minneapolis and then at the Children’s Seashore House, where I was their medical director and cared for children with sub-acute and chronic illnesses and developmental and physical disabilities. In the last phase of my professional career, I was an attending physician at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, supervising the care of the acutely ill, and I developed their International Adoption Health Program.
I have been involved in a myriad of ways in helping families integrate foreign-born children into their families, schools, and communities. While in Philadelphia, I was also consultant to the Department of Human Services about children in their foster-care system.
I attended Quaker schools and a Quaker college, and until adulthood was very involved in my “community of origin,” a Jewish community. Ultimately I incorporated the divergent experiences and evolved into a secular humanist. In the 1970s and ‘80s, I helped develop a community of Secular Humanistic Judaism in Minneapolis, and then, after returning to Philadelphia in 1989, was a co-founder and co-leader of a similar group there.
My husband and I moved to Tenafly in 2007 so we would be close to our daughters, as we together navigated our way through what proved to be a decade of caring for my husband, as dementia ravaged him. We have four children (three bio and one of Korean heritage), and collectively they have 11 children, who are now attending pre-K to grad school, remotely.
I developed an interest in photography as I approached retirement and was becoming a full-time care-giver for my husband. What was initially intended as a diversion has proven to be a powerful healer and has enabled me to develop creatively while I became a part of an extended community of photographers. I have, in the last decade, enjoyed opportunities to travel with fellow photographers, as well as to travel with non-photographers who are patient with photographers. I have studied photography at The Art School at the Old Church and at art and photography schools in New York City. Photography has trained me to see and to contemplate. It’s meditative and a source of joy.
Gail Farber
