caregiver
Complicated Grief
Complicated Grief: When Losing a Parent to Cancer and Parental Alienation Collide
When my husband died from complications of cancer 13 years ago, I endured the relentless waves of grief that young widows and widowers are forced to ride when we lose a partner and the parent to our young children. Not only do we mourn their partnership and all our shared future dreams, but we also mourn the parent our kids have lost, and the significance of that parent/child relationship our children will never get to experience.
Read More...A Horrible Nightmare
May 24th started like any other regular Sunday morning. I had just returned from a trip and was catching up with my dad, stepmom, and younger sister, telling stories while drinking a cup of coffee. Our light and giggly conversations about the weather and our dinner plans for that night quickly took a turn as I heard the words, “There is something we have to tell you.”
Read More...Toolbox Tips for Establishing Your New Normal
When our three and a half year old little girl was diagnosed with ALL we had all of those feelings. Overwhelm. Denial. Despair at the three years of treatment and five years of follow up ahead of us.
Read More...What A Journey It Has Been
What a journey it has been, all it took was one day back in 2007 that has since changed the path in which my life would go. I did not know back then what to expect. I did not understand what the balance of a cancer diagnosis would be.
Read More...A Father’s Love
As a father, I have experienced the heartbreaking agony of losing my precious 13 year old daughter from brain cancer. When my daughter, Ashley, was first diagnosed with cancer, we were shocked, felt helpless and like most parents we trusted her doctors to cure her disease.
Read More...Braving the Storm
As I sit here looking out the window at the snow that is beginning to fall, I am transported back to January 2011 when I was 28 and my 35 year old husband was diagnosed with leukemia. I was thrown into a snow storm I was definitely not prepared for nor did I think I’d be in.
Read More...Cancer’s Butterfly Effect
My parents held my hand when the doctor said it was colon cancer. Stage three. They told me everything was going to be okay. My father promised he would look after me (financially). My mother said we would get through this TOGETHER.
And on 10th October 2012, my mother kept her promise.
