Liyna Anwar

Phil Mortillaro started Greenwich Locksmiths in Manhattan in 1980. His youngest son Philip followed in his dad's footsteps, and in 2014 talked to him about why he went into the family business.

Mary Ostendorf and her spouse, Leslye Huff, remember coming out to their family on Thanksgiving Day, 1983.

As an inmate at Rikers Island, Cas Torres dug graves for the bodies of the unclaimed and unidentified people on New York City's Hart Island, one of the largest cemeteries in the U.S.

At StoryCorps, Alexei Romanoff, an 82-year-old gay activist, recalls lessons he learned as a teenager from a proud gay elder — and which resonated as an adult.

Roy Daley immigrated to the U.S. from Honduras 50 years ago. At StoryCorps, he talks about his first impressions of America and how he learned the meaning of Thanksgiving in those early weeks.

Josh Stepakoff survived a shooting at a Jewish day camp when he was 6 years old. But, as he tells his father, it took years before he began to consider why he was targeted.

Lucha libre wrestling cemented the bond between a father and son. At StoryCorps, John Torres Jr. talks about how he has carried on the legacy after his father's death.

Two Sikh men lost their brother in a violent hate crime following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. At StoryCorps, they reflect on his life and how they were treated after the terrorist attacks.

Ed Cage shared his love for beatboxing with his daughter, Nicole, now 26, while she was in utero. Now, Ed says, beatboxing is part of their language and their connection.

A 10-year-old girl and her dad talk about Philando Castile, who worked in the lunchroom of her Minnesota school. Two years ago, Castile was shot and killed by a police officer who pulled him over.

When Sue McConnell and Kristyn Weed came out as transgender women, some of their loved ones cut them out of their lives. But when McConnell and Weed met, they forged their own sisterhood.

For much of her childhood, Abby Gagliardo's dad, Ralph, was in and out of prison. But Abby, now 17, never understood why — and she was hostile toward him when he finally returned home five years ago.

Five years after two explosions went off at the Boston Marathon, parents remember their son, Officer D.J. Simmonds, whose injuries suffered during a confrontation with the bombers led to his death.

As kids and now as adults, two brothers lift each other up — and in turn, themselves — as they face everyday challenges of living with autism.

In a StoryCorps conversation, two women who attended the New Bethany Home for Girls in Louisiana talk about the abuse they say they experienced there and how it affected them years later.

When Jerry Nadeau, 72, a Vietnam vet, met his husband, John Banvard, 100, a World War II vet, neither had been openly gay. Together now for almost 25 years, each says he feels completed by the other.

Until she put her own feelings before the judgments others made about her, April Gibson says she, as a young mother, "felt like I didn't deserve to feel the way women who do the right things do."

When someone is dying, and they don't have loved ones to be with them, David Wynn and Carolyn Lyon rush to the hospital to be by their sides. The work is emotionally draining, but has its rewards.

Josh Stepakoff remembers the day he was shot at his Jewish day camp in Los Angeles. He was 6. His father, Alan, recalls there was no manual on how to parent your child through something like that.

Brian Peterson crossed paths with Matt Faris, a homeless man on his street, dozens of times before he decided to say hello. Through their bond, the two men also drew inspiration from each other.