R
osalie Schwartz, an
84-year-old retired
psychotherapist, always
wanted to write a book. It was
only a matter of putting pen to
paper. Her plan was to share her
life’s lessons with the world and
other tidbits of wisdom she had
picked up along the way.
When the pandemic hit last
March, Schwartz realized it
was the perfect opportunity to
finally get started on the project
she always had in the back of
her mind. Over the course of
the past year, she put together
her book, In the Blink of an Eye:
A Personal Journey of Life and
Lessons Learned.
Throughout the 98-page
book, which was released in
February on Amazon in both
paperback and Kindle format,
the Metro Detroit-based writer
gives forth what she calls “pearls
of wisdom,
” little sayings that
virtually anyone can live their
life by. She has also decided to
donate all proceeds to local food
banks and community mem-
bers in need.
Quotes like “We have two
ears and one mouth so that we
can listen more than we speak”
and “It’s hard to be a person”
are connected back to Schwartz’
memories and life experiences,
explaining how they correlate
and what others can learn from
her story. They pull from both
her personal
life and career,
which Schwartz
began later than
most.
As her chil-
dren grew older,
she made the
decision to go
back to school
at the age of 40.
“I fell in love
with it,
” she
recalls of her
education at
the University
of Michigan.
Previously,
Schwartz didn’t
have post-secondary education.
“I had the best of both worlds.
I was able to raise my children
and then go back to school and
back to work.
”
She received an undergrad-
uate degree in social work and
built a career working in the
public sector. For 20 years, she
worked at an agency as a thera-
pist and later a program direc-
tor. Then, Schwartz transitioned
into private practice for another
20 years, retiring just two years
ago at the age of 82.
“During the past many years,
I thought to myself that when
I had some time, I was going
to write a book and share my
experiences of life,
” Schwartz
recalls.
Helping people learn life
skills was second nature for
the retired psychotherapist,
who helped counsel hundreds
throughout her career. She even
developed the term “pearls of
wisdom” alongside her grand-
children, to whom she would
send a different “pearl” each
week as they attended college.
CONCERN FOR
THE HUNGRY
Throughout the COVID-19
shutdown, Schwartz made it
a point to sit down and work
on her book. She wrote for
months until it was finally
finished. Then, during a visit
to Temple Israel, the syna-
gogue she attends, she noticed
a long line of people in cars.
“I didn’t know what they
were doing,” she explains.
Schwartz spoke to her rabbi,
who mentioned the line of
cars was there for a food
drive. Temple Israel members
were dropping off food that
would later be donated to dif-
ferent food banks in need.
Schwartz learned the drive
happened monthly, which
gave her an idea. “My heart
was breaking when I watched
television and saw all these
people standing in line for
food,” she says of the pan-
demic, which had tremen-
dous financial impact on
many families, including in
the local community. “That
was a motivation for me to
complete this book, so I could
donate the proceeds to the
food banks.”
Though Schwartz says it’s
a smaller book, she notes she
was anxious to complete it
instead of taking more time
to build it out further, which
she believes she could have
done. However, she wanted to
help the community as soon
as possible and already has a
strong start on donations.
Since the book’s release in
February, Schwartz has been
collecting money (and will
continue to do so with all
future proceeds) that she aims
to split between Yad Ezra,
Gleaners Community Food
Bank and Forgotten Harvest.
In the meantime, she explains
she’ll continue writing more
life lessons.
“That’s my plan,” she says.
“It was a labor of love.”
Life Lessons
... Shared
26 | APRIL 8 • 2021
OUR COMMUNITY
Retired psychotherapist pens advice
book as a “labor of love.”
ASHLEY ZLATOPOLSKY CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Rosalie Schwartz