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Wishing All Our Clients,
Friends and Family
a Healthy and
Happy Passover!

DeVinney Czarnecki
Physical Therapy

N OT T I N G H I L L

of W EST B LOOMFIELD

John Hardwick

8.BQMF 4VJUF 8#MPPNöFMEt
www.dcptonline.com

REHAB SERVICES

When you choose our center for your rehabilitation
needs, you can take comfort in knowing that we’ll
be here for you every step of the way, for as long as
you need us.

A Tale Of Two
Leonards

Our competent, caring staﬀ is focused on providing
comprehensive rehab services to our patients.

Our rehab services include:

State-of-the-Art
Rehabilitation Gym
& Hydrotherapy Pool

& Comprehensive Rehabilitation Services Including:
Physical, Occupational and Speech Therapies
& Orthopedic Rehabilitation
& Stroke/Neurological Rehabilitation
& Prosthetic Training
& Treatment of Swallowing Difficulties
& Back Injuries Rehabilitation
& Physiatrist on Staff

6535 Drake Road , West Bloomfield , MI 48322
phone 248.592.2000 | www.cienafacilities.com

The two Leonards, JVS job coach Leonard Malach and JVS client Leonard Slipson

2053840

After 50 years, kind friends from
the old block meet again during
job coaching at JVS.

Vivian Henoch | Special To the Jewish News

T

hey were two Leonards.
Friends back in the 1960s,
Leonard Malach and Leonard
Slipson, some 11 years apart in
age, lived across the street from
one another on a quiet block of
Stansbury in the Eight Mile and
Schaefer area of Detroit.
Now, Leonard Malach, 61, is a
retired painting contractor working
as a job coach for JVS in Southfield.
Leonard Slipson is a spry 72-year-
old with a lifelong cognitive impair-
ment that has not diminished his
youthful strength and vigor — nor
appreciably held him back from hard
work, a happy relationship and a
full life, inspiring others. As a cli-
ent of JVS, he is part of the agency’s
Supported Employment Program for
those with disabilities.
In recognition of his outstand-
ing work history and the positive
attitude that he brings to his job at
St. Anne’s Mead home for seniors,
Slipson was selected to receive the
2015 JVS Inspiration Award.
The younger Leonard remembers
Stansbury street like it was yester-
day. “There are a lot of fond memo-
ries of that neighborhood,” Malach
recalls. “It was a time when parents
didn’t think twice about kids playing

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44 April 14 • 2016

ball in the street, a time when neigh-
bors were close.”
As long-lost friends tend to do,
the two Leonards fall into easy pat-
ter whenever they come together to
describe their unexpected reunion
after a hiatus of nearly 50 years:
Slipson: We lost contact …
Malach: When we moved out of
the neighborhood, I must have been
12, maybe 13 years old.
Slipson: And I was in my early
20s.
Malach: We had no idea how we
were still connected until we met
three years ago at a party hosted for
JVS clients and job coaches. I notice
this guy as he walks in. Reminds me
of Leonard. But I think, “Naw, can’t
be!”
Slipson: But it was! I recognized
Leonard right away.
Malach: Then Leonard’s life part-
ner comes up to my table, and she
asks if my name is Leonard and if
I knew that guy sitting across the
room. And I said, “Yeah, I think
so!” Looking back, Leonard hadn’t
changed a bit!
Slipson: We’re still the same old
Leonards.
Malach: Except your hair was
black back then.

