Marilyn Sandberg Grenat

With more than 40 years of professional experience across several fields, Marilyn Sandberg Grenat has excelled as a caregiver for the elderly and young through her business, Grenat Caregiver Services, since 2015. In addition to this responsibility, she has devoted herself to writing—a passion of hers for decades—with the publications of a poetry book titled “Inspirations from the Heart” in 2018 and a biography titled “Perseverance and Persistence: Leonard Sandberg’s Biography” in 2020, which she authored about her father—whom she considers her hero. A Swedish immigrant who arrived in the United States in 1926, he started his own business through perseverance and persistence—traits she inherited. She’s so often been told that she’s so much like him that the autobiography she’s currently writing is called “Daddy’s Girl.”

Ms. Sandberg Grenat’s earliest poems were written surrounding the birth of her only son and the death of her mother in 1969—after which she kept writing and tucking the poems away, ultimately about her four children, nine grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren. She lost her husband, Gene, to Alzheimer’s in 2011 and her son, Jeffrey, to cancer, both of which she wrote about—“Inspirations from the Heart” was written as part of her therapy following Gene’s death. Writing has always been a reliable form of therapy and refuge for her throughout her career. Equipped with an Associate of Arts in liberal arts from North Park University and an Associate of Arts in paralegal, she worked at the Tippecanoe Sheriff’s Department, as an accounting clerk at Purdue University for more than a decade, as an after-school program teacher at Tippecanoe Child Care, and a nanny at Homecare By Design. After losing Gene, she made the decision to care for the elderly through her own services—all of which were reflected in her poetry and helped to eliminate anxiety from her system.

The highlight of Ms. Sandberg Grenat’s career has been the publication of her books and being a single mother to four children. She looks forward to spending more time with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren as well as pursuing her passion for painting. Her books are the legacy she is leaving for her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren so they know what their roots are.