Your New Year’s Gift

Happy New year! May 2023 be a year of personal and spiritual growth, peace, and love for each of you. To kick the year off, here’s a gift sample from The Divine Meddler. Enjoy the read! From The Divine Meddler   Chapter 1 Deadly Discovery      Strong, chilly...

Hunting for Answers

When I was matriculating for my B.S.N. at Alfred University, I used every opportunity to study family caregivers as patients who needed certain interventions for health and well-being. Of course, “caregiving” is not an official disease, so that left family members to...

Christmas Minefield

Do you wave the white flag of surrender around Thanksgiving and vow your better menu angel will return on January 1? How many times have you promised yourself you would eat healthy over the holidays, no matter what, when the doorbell rings and a friend stands on the...

For Unto Us is Given

Humans love tradition. Every culture re-enacts or recalls certain meaningful events every year. With Christmas, the celebration of the birth of Jesus has gained trappings galore. As I searched for the photo for this blog, I started with “Christmas,” and all that came...

Eureka!

  It started as a short story, but I soon discovered the plot’s arc was too big. It needed to be a novel. So, over the next five years, between article assignments and blogs, in fits and starts, Lou Skalney’s life took form and became my “magnum opus.” It lived...

“Forget Me Not” by Debra Kostiw

  So I’ve been a nurse for over 50 years, in hospital and community settings. My desire to work with caregivers arose when I was the sole caregiver for both my parents. It was grueling trying to balance work and my home life. It made me wonder how “lay” people...

Sunny side up-or not

I like Fall and cozy overcast afternoons with my homemade soup simmering while a fire burns in the fireplace. But I bah-humbug my way through the holidays and rejoice on January 2nd. Clearly, I don’t suffer what many of you do once we turn our clocks back an hour....

Hedged In

  I could be dead right now. Looking back, the whole thing seemed like a fluke, until… I heard a funny sound coming from my refrigerator. I peered inside and everything looked okay, so I thought nothing of it. A few days later, standing in front of my washing...

What’s in a Name?

  Eliza knew Cadfan, in a fit of jealousy, had tethered Angharad’s spirit to the Ruins of Maldwyn. No one would have her in the afterlife. She would remain his for all eternity. Determined to free her ancestor, Eliza stood before the crumbling stones, a dozen...

Hi Grandma

As I was deciding what I wanted to blog about today, I realized that many folks my age are care receivers and not caregivers. Because I’m in that vulnerable cohort, I often get those phonecalls that begin, “Hi Grandma.” A sob story seeking money as the solution soon...