Dear Readers, It is with sadness that we share the news of Cai ending her remarkable life on January 2, 2023. She had planned her death for her 72nd birthday, January 15, but ALS had other ideas. Like so much of her life up to this point, Cai...
Objects
Every day I circle through the ground floor of our house with my walker. My exercise tour! Beginning in the bedroom, where the “cockpit” (aka the bed) is the center of my activity these days, I advance in my ground-gripping slippers, careful step...
One Life
In the last couple of years, since my ALS diagnosis, I’ve lived two parallel lives. One was the life I’d always been living as a writer in which I devoted my mornings—and often beyond—to writing, followed by taking care of business, running...
Week #5 of “A Brief Pause”
This week’s post is written by Nancy Hopps. I will return next week to tell you about my second mushroom trip I took yesterday, wearing these ruby slippers! Death Can Be “Just Fine” by Nancy Hopps I’ve always had a profound...
Normalizing (As Much As Possible)
A few years ago I attended the wedding of a former boyfriend. Shortly after we split up, he came out and, following a brief rift, we became close friends. I was delighted to be celebrating his union with the wonderful man he was marrying. As the...
On Death and Publication
Today, Tuesday September 27th 2022, is the official publication date of my new novel, Livid. This is the second of two novels of mine that have come out this month. The first was Unleashed, which was published on September 6th. Needless to say, I...
Finding The Humor in Death and Dying
https://www.today.com/health/essay/als-fatal-diagnosis-humor-rcna47370 I hope you enjoy today’s post which is an essay I wrote for Today.com about humor and death!
Memento Mori
My son recently got a tattoo that runs the length of his thigh. It features a beautifully-rendered hour glass with a skull leaking from the top to the bottom. Along the top are inscribed the words: memento mori. This is the Latin phrase that...
It Will Be Hard To Leave
(This post is a day late because yesterday the internet was down!) The last few -weeks have been hellish in this country. We’ve seen the worst of human nature on display, not only in the shooters, but in many of the people responding to the...
The Power of Birth Stories
I have not met my seven-week-old grandniece, Radley, in the flesh, but I can’t get enough of watching videos of her squirming and cooing, flailing her tiny limbs around and making mini fists. The first of her generation in our family, she is...