Soul SiStories
Soul SiStories was born out of a mutual desire to bring forward hope and healing through sharing our lived experiences. Hope is embracing life despite adversity. Hope is our reason.
Soul SiStories
From Trauma To Legacy: A Doctor’s Journey To Healing And Thriving
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What if thriving starts where certainty ends? We sit down with Dr. Greg Linkowski—retired diagnostic radiologist and author of Dare to Thrive—to unpack a life shaped by early trauma, a demanding medical career, and the love and loss of his son David. Greg doesn’t offer platitudes. He offers practices: therapy that names wounds, a faith that steadies the long nights, and a marriage that held fast through caregiving, grief, and laughter that surprised them in hard places.
Greg traces how a rock-solid work ethic met the limits of control when David’s early developmental delays unfolded into a life-altering diagnosis. The prognosis shattered expectations, but it also clarified priorities. Weekly date nights became a lifeline. Community, church, and skilled clinicians formed a safety net. Journaling turned into decades of notes that would become Dare to Thrive—a book about turning pain into purpose and building a legacy defined by compassion rather than circumstance.
We talk about choosing intention over impulse: parenting with care, retiring at the top of his field to pursue writing and coaching, and confronting personal biases as his family’s story widened. Greg’s voice is warm, candid, and grounded. He shows how resilience grows from small, steady choices; how faith deepens when it meets reality; and how grief can expand the heart rather than close it. Listeners who carry PTSD, caregiving fatigue, or quiet doubts will find practical hope here—access to resources, permission to ask for help, and a reminder that no one has to walk alone.
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Welcome to Soul Sisters. Welcome to Soul Sisteries, where we just had an interesting talk with Dr. Greg Linkowski, the author of Dare to Thrive, a book where he shares his life experience and his hope through faith.
SPEAKER_01Hello, and we are here with Dr. Greg Linkowski, MD. He's a retired diagnostic radiologist with over 20 years' experience serving patients. Since retiring in 2014, Greg has been exploring life coaching and recently published his first book, Dare to Thrive, a project 30 years in the making. Dare to Thrive shares his journey as a trauma survivor and offers reflections on healing, lessons learned, and spiritual growth. Through his writing and coaching, he aims to encourage others on their own paths to recovery and remind them that they are not alone. We love that Greg's hope through word is hope through faith. And we're going to talk all about that right now. Greg, welcome. Welcome to Soul Sistries. Welcome.
SPEAKER_04Thank you so very much, Donna and Diana. Is your first name pronounced Donna?
SPEAKER_01It's Donna. It's Donna.
SPEAKER_04Hey we have we have a lot in common in that. I for years worked in an Italian delicatess in during my teen years Dorothy Onkers, New York. And uh so even though I'm all Polish, I believe I'm grafted in into being at least part Italian.
SPEAKER_01Oh, you're well welcome, welcome. You're part of the club. And yeah, our mother and her people are all from uh Brooklyn. And so we we claim New York as you know our ancestry as well. Uh so uh yeah, we definitely have a lot in common. So thank you for joining us. We're here um to talk about you, your book, your hope through faith, and anything you'd like to share. Um, we think every story is a fascinating one, and yours certainly sounds like it is, and everybody would love to hear all about it. So tell us if you would, Greg, this moment in time, where you are with your book and the work that you're doing, the mission that you're on, what got you here? What's the story?
Grief, Faith, And Life’s “Last Quarter”
SPEAKER_04Just small. Oh God. Well well, I I I think what I want to do is just go. There's a medical term, go for the jugular. I I want to tell you in three days, we are going to experience 23 years since our middle child, David, transitioned on became became part of uh heaven's population.
SPEAKER_01I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry that that's part of your journey and as the mother of a son who's transitioned as well. I certainly understand all the pain and beauty that is is in that. It's it's replete with all of it, and my heart is with you.
SPEAKER_04It absolutely is, and thank you so very much. I very honestly feel as though many of the life experiences I've had, I feel as though I've lived the equivalent of about two lifetimes. Now, Greg Glinkowski, have an MD after my name. That is one part of who I am and what I happen to be blessed by God to do for a living as a diagnostic radiologist. I would say the the greatest accomplishment and blessing that I have ever had has been, well, one thing to to be married. In fact, in another week and a half, my wife Lynn and I will be celebrating 42 years of blissful combat, along with lots of good stuff that happened, also some not so good stuff, and yet we have honored our vow, our our sacred covenant of marriage. I I would have to say the the headliner or the primary reason behind me writing my story is to leave some type of legacy. Here I am, I'm I'm 71 years old. Embrace the fact that unless something miraculous happens, I am in my last quarter. I've determined to make it the best quarter. And so the question to myself, like almost like M. Scott Peck would say, is what kind of a return am I going to make? What is my legacy? Truly, I'm, if you ask my kids, I'm a very loving dad, for which I am most proud of. I'm most proud of the the job that Lynn and I did as parents, being generational change agents in our family trajectory. Now, now I can speak to what happened in the past. Yes. Did I grow up in a very dysfunctional family? Did I experience a lot of trauma? Do I still have remnants of PTSD? Oh, absolutely.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Has that helped fashion me into being the person that I am? Yes. Has it also been a curse that I've I've had to really put a lot of time, effort, and energy into my own personal healing? Oh, you bet.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And and and um I'm just grateful for the journey, and I'm grateful to have God in my life. I I chose from from the selection that you folks gave me, I chose hope through faith because my faith and my profound belief in God has pulled me through many life instances where I could have been a statistic, I could have gone a dramatically different way.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And I'm just so grateful to have had the life that I have. And and I'm also here to say to people who feel like they have two strikes against them, I've been there. There is hope. There is hope even when there seem there may seem like there isn't any hope. I'm I'm here to just encourage people to seek help when you need it, and don't try to do this journey called life alone. You know, no man is an island. And there are these days, there's so many resources out there for people. I mean, I know people have been abused emotionally, sexually, um, have had all sorts of varied life experiences, but there are therapy that's out there, there's support groups, there's uh just a a whole plethora of of things that are available. Some of them as quick as as a few taps on on your iPhone. There's just there's lots of resources out there.
Work Ethic, PTSD, And Not Giving Up
SPEAKER_00Let me ask you, because I know you talked about kind of your upbringing, and there's some trauma in your upbringing. Somewhere along the line, though, you went to medical school and and had a career as an MD. You have a marriage that's 42 years long, which is so much more than many can say. You have you've parented your children, and it sounds like you've done that well. You've also 23 years ago lost your son David. There's all this stuff that's gone on, and then you've written this book with this insane dare to thrive, which to me is kind of like some things have happened, and I'm still showing up for this world, and I'm I'm going to not just survive but thrive, right? So I'm curious what happened along the way for you that kind of lifted you up or give you gave you that strength when so many other people just with the original cards would have folded, right? They wouldn't have gone to med school, they wouldn't have had you know this lifelong marriage, they wouldn't have raised their children, written a book. So, so what gave you kind of that that push, that lift, that hope to be able to do all of this?
SPEAKER_04Well, I I do have to give credit. Uh, by the way, I mean, you can't make this one up. Today, my mother who passed on a few years ago, uh, today is her. If she had been alive, she would be 98 today. She was an amazing individual. She was also a true piece of work. The oldest of nine, who, with her mom and dad and aunt, lived in a row house in central Yonkers that was uh square footage, a little bit less than 1100 square feet. Grew up initially as a little girl, one bathroom outside the house, which was an outhouse. Then during her childhood, they built a small bathroom in the basement of their house. So my mom comes from a tough background.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Growing up during the depression and being the oldest of nine children, in many ways, she was ordained to be a surrogate mom at a very young age. They both are part of what I would definitely consider the greatest generation. Dad, along with his brothers, all joined the service to defend our country in World War II. Dad was in the Navy. Yes, he was at D-Day uh in a LST landing ships and tanks, saw some of the worst of what mankind could do to mankind. Now, while my parents did a lot wrong, and believe me, I I wouldn't repeat, and and my wife and I did not repeat what was done to me to the best of our the best of our ability. What I did learn from my parents is they don't give up, they did not give up.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04I I I like to almost channel Winston Churchill, never, never give up.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04I think these days, and I don't want to speak bad about what's what's going on culturally, but it does appear to me that quitting or perhaps the spirit of you owe me uh exists. I mean, there's other there's other phraseologies to use. I'm here to tell you that my parents instilled in us a solid, and I mean rock solid work ethic, which I think is something to be showcased and proud of. Even despite you know the PTSD that I experienced as a child and spent many years in my own individual therapy unraveling. Yeah, I believe God has enabled me to hold on to the good that was also in there because there was a there was a lot of good mixed in with a lot of bad.
Writing Dare To Thrive And Legacy
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but it's a lot of good therapy, right? That helps you get to that position where you can take what's valuable, not throw that away. But allow yourself to heal through those wounds. And then to your, I think, point to bring to bring it to a point is this idea that you've made conscious choices along the way. You were going to parent with intention, you were going to enter your workplace with intention, you were going to attend to your marriage with intention. And so there was a lot that you then learned and consciously put into place. It wasn't just, oh, it just happened or that was your impulse. You had real intentionality around all of that. Would you, would you say that that's so?
SPEAKER_04Yes, absolutely. Uh and if I if I look back on by the way, I I did retire a little a little over 11 years ago at age 60. I had had, I believe I got to the point where I was pretty much at the top of my game. I was able to transition out while I still had some vigor and some enthusiasm left to be able to explore other avenues of life that had to be put on the shelf. Do I miss diagnostic radiology? Oh, I love it. I absolutely loved being a really good clinician. Um, have I enjoyed the last 11 years? Oh, yeah. And I've dabbled in a variety of different things. Um, the most recent of which was uh writing my life story. And in essence, I'm I'm here to honor my the memory of my son David, who God let us have for almost 10 years. Through his life, we have become, all of us in my in my primary family have become more empathic, more compassionate individuals. Uh and it's a joy for me to see who my daughter and who my son have become. And and and I I tell I tell my wife Lynn, we did it.
David’s Early Signs And Diagnosis
SPEAKER_00What can you share with us, Greg, about I guess about the book, about David, about kind of that journey to writing your story and deciding what you wanted to share of your life story with others? Can you tell us a little bit about that process?
Faith Deepens Amid Shattered Expectations
SPEAKER_04And I I began journaling and and taking notes on and also even recording some of my feelings, observations, experiences about 30 years ago when David was about two years old. He was born January 1st, 1993. We believed that he was, quote, normal, healthy little boy. Now we do have a daughter who is three years older than David, and she has blessed us and the world with four children, for which I am madly in love with. And then David came along three years later. The journey with David and his medical condition slowly revealed itself at about three and a half months of age when one of our relatives said to us, you know, I think there's something wrong with David. He's he doesn't make eye contact with us. And prior to that time, Lynn had had a great deal of difficulty breastfeeding, which we living in denial about what was going on. We we passed off as well, colic. You know, he was he was he wasn't able to have the ability to latch on and to be able to get his body nourished adequately. In April of '93, we uh brought him in for a well baby check, and we watched the pediatrician's face turn from his usual pretty happy countenance to a very grave, severe, almost horrified uh look on his face, which he he could not hide. And he said to us, Your son has developmental delay. Even being an MD, and by the way, my wife is also a physician. We had no idea what was in store for us. Oh, we were to find out. Um, in rapid succession, David had an urgent pediatric neurology consultation, CAT scan of his head, and not long afterwards, uh, a workup with a metabolic geneticist who informed us that uh in that doctor's opinion, David was never gonna walk, never gonna talk, never gonna be able to ride a bicycle. Our dreams and hopes for his life were shattered. We were also in denial, and we said, that doctor's wrong. And that somehow, and don't ask me really how, but that deepened our faith walk and reliance on God, and we did everything, and I mean everything in subsequent months and years to have a miracle happen. And i.e. I'm talking about a creative miracle from God, which I was raised conservative Catholic, Catholic grade school, high school, and Catholic college in New York.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we we we were Catholic, Catholic school girls ourselves.
SPEAKER_04Oh yeah, and so we we get the story, and and it was uh boy, oh boy, I have I had a lot of stories. Some of the nuns and some of the priests and brothers were angels, yeah, and some were other, some were other, exactly, yeah, yeah. And and uh, but it was uh overall, I I I would have to say, I believe I got pretty amazing education through it all. I I was so fortunate being uh out of I have three other siblings. I'm I'm number two in in the uh chance in the birth order. Somehow God blessed me with my my method or my way of getting parental recognition was excelling in school. I am so grateful for having had that role. I mean, one can say, well, I chose that role. I I think God chose me for that role. And so, you know, whatever conditional love there was to go around, that was my ticket.
SPEAKER_01That's a really that's an interesting thing, too. And I think Diana can speak to this better than I can with her clinical training, and and my sister's a side. And uh, but in typical family systems, right, particularly in dysfunctional systems, isn't it usually like that? The first child is that hero, is the one who with, and then the second child often then is the scapegoat. And like, isn't that the sort of am I am I speaking correctly, sis?
SPEAKER_00Yes, often that is the case, but clearly it's not, right?
unknownRight.
SPEAKER_04And and I and I will share with you my my sister, who's two years older, when I was very young, I I probably want to say about maybe I I could have been five years old, give or take, a year or two. It turns out my sister was very ill for a for a time and had apparently a very severe kidney infection. Now we're talking back in the late 50s, and God only knows the the the medications that were available. I mean, I know penicillin was available, but none of the the more secondary, tertiary uh medications uh were even invented then.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04But she was hospitalized for at least a couple or a few weeks. I believe the family dynamics changed in that, in essence, I I sort of became like the older child. Yeah. And that and that remains a mystery to me uh as to the actual dynamics, because how can one know? I mean, I was I was a child, yeah, but it was a position that that I I believe I assumed, and and it was well, it worked very much to my advantage. My siblings each had their own unique trajectories and how they were able to cope with and and deal with the dysfunctionality. And some choices were were made, were healthy, some weren't, but yet we're all alive and we're actually we actually care about each other. Other as well, which which I find I'm very grateful for.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. There's nothing quite like, right, those siblings who walked that journey with you, though everyone's journey is unique and everyone's experience, even of that same household, is unique for different ages and where they all all of that makes such a difference. But to have that as you grow older, to have those people who have that history with you, is uh there's nothing quite like that.
Family Roles, Siblings, And Healing
SPEAKER_04I'm very, I'm very grateful for all of them. And and I'm also grateful for having had the journey that I had. There's some there's so many things that so many directions we could go with this, but I I do want to tell you, I do want to concentrate on the David story. Yes. How did how did we how did we navigate through life with David? Well, early on, Lynn and I kept our commitment to each other. We maintained pretty much our weekly date night consistently with rare exceptions, and and we were blessed with being able to have backup. We were able to hire people who were in, and and believe me, we have no small amount of experience of babysitters, nannies. Um we've had really good ones. Yeah, we've also had ones that have had have showcased their um pathology. Uh but anyway, early on, we would go to a local restaurant, split a bottle of wine, sometimes have dinner, sometimes just cry together, and sometimes the tears would erupt into laughter because some of the experiences that we went through were hecka funny.
SPEAKER_00You said you had your daughter and then David, and I think there was one other.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and and there's uh and then there's Sammy. God really had an amazing sense of humor when he gave us Sammy. Sammy came along about three and a half years after after David, which by the way was pretty a pretty bold maneuver on Lynn's and my part in that the metabolic geneticist had warned us if we did have another another child, if it were a son, there was quote a chance that that son could have the same undiagnosed, terrible seizure disorder that David had. Well, it turns out he didn't, but Sammy grew up to be the entertainer in the family, and right now he's 28 and married to his significant other. What an amazing life experience for me to deal with my own built-in biases from growing up in New York as a conservative Catholic and also practicing now just uh pretty much non-denominational Christianity. I had a number of come to Jesus meetings with God through the help of my therapist to ferret out my own biases and prejudices. I am one of those people who I have accepted my son, and my role is to love him, to encourage him, and to be the best dad that I can be along along on the journey. Sam, uh, he's very gifted, as is our daughter. And let me tell you, I am one rich man.
Marriage, Date Nights, And Caregiving
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. And it's your children, Sammy included, have been tremendous gifts to you. And I understand what that is, even the challenges that you walked with your David and and the loss of him in this lifetime. I know there's also a tremendous gift for you there as well. So um, you know, our children are fundamentally our greatest teachers, right? And oh, absolutely. Yeah, that which we most need to learn. But to your credit, you've taken those lessons and you've taken those blessings and you've been open to opening and expanding through them. And that really is the hero's journey, isn't it? That we take what's there and we become more, we understand more, we love more, we expand more. And that goes back to your intentionality as well. Your intentionality of being present and loving through all of this is why you sit here now feeling so blessed and feeling that you've been given so much, though you could very easily be sitting here and listing the litany of the ways in which the world has wronged you. And right, right? And that's a choice. It fundamentally gets down to a choice and a choice of perspective and what you do with that. And then the other thing that I think Diana mentioned that bears repeating is this idea to do it with community, to do it with your wife, to do it with your children, to do it with whatever that community is that you've chosen. And for you, it has been your church community and uh, you know, organizations that have supported your journey. But I think that is right, that's the human experience to do that, is how we get through and thrive, which is that word that you chose also for your book, thrive. It's not just living, you chose thriving.
SPEAKER_00So let's go to a few of our rapid fire questions. So, what if I know that you also do some coaching and you've got your book? And so let's just imagine you're walking onto the big stage right now. What would be your walk-in song?
SPEAKER_04It might be the Pennsylvania polka. Um yeah, well, you know, on one of the podcasts, I'm gonna bring out my accordion, and uh the mandate is up to me to uh to brush up on it. I don't know. That's the first thing I thought of.
SPEAKER_01I I love it. It's a great answer. It's a great answer. All right, next question. What book changed you?
Welcoming Sammy And Confronting Bias
SPEAKER_04Lots of books, but but I think the first I I used to love Doc Savage books uh back when I was uh a youngster, and they were adventure books. Oh, I loved it. I I I would I would vicariously live uh some of the character with some of the characters.
SPEAKER_00What did you love doing as a child that you still love doing today?
SPEAKER_04Play in the accordion.
SPEAKER_00So uh Greg, what color is hope?
SPEAKER_04The white light of God's love.
SPEAKER_00What does it sound like? What does hope sound like?
SPEAKER_04It's like angelic harmony.
SPEAKER_01Greg, this has been a delight talking with you. We're so glad that you came to join us on Soul Sisteries. Share your journey, share your story, and certainly share your hope through. Um it's that those stories of resilience and finding a way to not only live, but to thrive. And also your book is Dare to Thrive, and people can find that on various sources, Amazon and elsewhere, correct?
SPEAKER_04Yes, ma'am. And I wish you the very best in your endeavors and and uh and thank you for having me as a guest.
SPEAKER_01It's been our joy and pleasure. It was lovely to meet you and talk with you. Everyone, thank you for joining us and uh check out Greg's work. Take care. Thanks for joining us today on Soul Sistories. And thanks for sharing stories with us. We'd love to hear your stories as well and keep the conversation going, absolutely keeping the hope going. So we're really hopeful that you'll connect with our guests as well who have great stories to share. Go ahead and follow them in various social media platforms or live venues, wherever it is that they're performing and uh sharing what they do.
SPEAKER_00We would love to have you follow us on all of our social media platforms, subscribe and rate, as that will help us get our message of hope out to others.
SPEAKER_01Thanks for listening to Soul Sisteries.
