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VIDEO: Calcaterra featured in CBS piece on human resiliency

TIM KELLY FILE PHOTO | Regina Calcaterra of New Suffolk opening her State Senate campaign in the summer of 2009.
TIM KELLY FILE PHOTO | Regina Calcaterra of New Suffolk opening her State Senate campaign in the summer of 2009.

New Suffolk attorney Regina Calcaterra was one of several subjects featured in a CBS Sunday Morning cover story on human resiliency and the “science of survival,” which first aired this morning.

Ms. Calcaterra, an aide to Governor Andrew Cuomo, was interviewed by CBS news correspondent Susan Spencer about how she overcame a difficult childhood with an abusive mother and years spent living in foster homes. Her childhood is the subject of Ms. Calcaterra’s recently released memoir “Etched in Sand.” (She sat down with The Suffolk Times for an interview on the day the book was released.)

Asked if she believes she’s resilient, Ms. Calcaterra said, “Yes, absolutely, I do. If I’m pinged or knocked down, I get up very quickly and just move forward, and I always have.”

“Do you get annoyed at people when they get all upset about life’s little issues?” Spencer asks later in the interview.

“Absolutely, I do,” laughed Calcaterra. “I actually think that it’s good that they get upset about the small things, because then they didn’t experience such pain and suffering. So then they’ve had a good life, if the little things set them off.”

Editor’s Note: Ms. Calcaterra first appears at the 3:54 mark of the video.