By Diana Henry - bio | email | Twitter | Facebook | Blog
MADISON (WKOW)-- We all have our own obstacles to overcome in life. It's how we deal with them that helps define us. We meet a woman who overcame her own setbacks and is helping others do the same. Barbara Zabawa is 'Someone You Should Know.'
For near 3 years now, Barbara Zabawa has helped healthcare clients as an attorney with Whyte Hirshboeck Dudek in Madison.
"I solve problems," said Barbara.
While Barbara has the answers for her clients; she didn't have the answers to what life threw at her in November of 2004
Barbara and her husband had twins after going through in vitro fertilization
"As I was going through it, I kept telling myself this has got to be the hardest thing I will ever go through," said Barbara. "I didn't realize at the time that it was a precursor to something even more difficult which is when my husband of 10 years left when the kids were 3 weeks old."
Barbara says her kids kept her going.
"It forced me to feel relevant at a time when I felt so vulnerable and scared," said Barbara. "It forced me to get up every day and take care of them because I was the only one who could do it and it really pulled me through a very dark time."
With her own dark time behind her, she now interviews and writes other people's stories of heartache that led them down a different road.
The online compilation of those stories is called Lemon Spark.
"Something unexpected, uncontrollable happens, a dark thing hits you from out of no where and changes your life and they do something that they never would have done otherwise because of that," said Barbara.
More than a dozen stories appear on the web site right now including Jackie Bradley's. Jackie went through what she calls an "ambush divorce" years ago; which eventually led her to playing piano and producing cd's as a way to help others cope with life's moments.
Barbara's kids, Patrick and Vivian, are now 5-years-old. Now 39, Barbara is remarried. Barbara is happy to share her story in hopes of helping others.
"If there's one person out there who feels encouraged from this then it's worth it," said Barbara.
Click here to check out Lemon Spark.
