Years before the COVID-19 pandemic, I attended a conference hosted by the American Society on Aging. One session featured Dr. Julianne Holt-Lunstad, whose research left a lasting impression. She shared a striking statistic: the health risks of loneliness and isolation in older adults are comparable to smoking 15 cigarettes a day. I don’t usually remember numbers well, but that one stuck. And when I’ve shared it with others, the reaction is often disbelief—Really? That can’t be!
At eleven-thirty p.m. on New Year’s Eve, Dad began to prepare. He helps Mom to gently ease off the pretty Wittnauer wristwatch he gave her for their anniversary. He..
I was standing on the deck of the USS Winston - one of the Navy’s finest cargo carriers getting underway at the San Diego Naval Station in June of 1953.
I love watching the British television series “Call the Midwife” which is currently in its 13th season. The series is based on Jennifer Worth’s memoirs of her nursing..
Advent was an important time in our family. I am an only child, so my memories are about small gatherings. Our church prepared a series of weekly meditations for..
These holidays from the end of November through the new year stress me out. This is not related to any past trauma or grief around this time of year, but the conflict..
On November 23rd, this year, I will celebrate my 92nd birthday with the same words I’ve been using for the past few years: “Where DID the time go? What did I do with the..
What is fair? What do we really mean when we say (usually with our hands clenched and our faces grimacing), “It’s Not Fair!”
At the age of 40, Karen, a single mother of two, was diagnosed with colon cancer that had spread to her liver. It was a devastating diagnosis. As her parish nurse, I was..
My twenty-three-year-old grandson is in a coma. Six months ago, he was struck by an automobile near his university. Since then, he has been in five hospitals in three..
