Some anniversaries we don’t need to remember. My Da just called to remind me that it was 40 years ago today that his father, my Gramps, was killed in a farm accident. Do you have a singular day that changed the trajectory of your life? I remember that
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Dead Wild Roses: Shadow – My Bestest Dog
This is my dog, Shadow. We found her at the Alberta Sheltie Rescue society. She had passed through two families before finding her forever home with me. Shadow passed from this world yesterday and I miss her so very dearly. It was time, she was 15 or 16 years old
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: 4 TIPS FOR GETTING BETTER SLEEP DURING TIMES OF GRIEF
Grief is part of the caregiving experience and when a loved one passes away, unbearable sadness and loneliness can overwhelm. Today, I am happy to host this guest post by writer and widow, Sara Bailey who offers some strategies to help you sleep if you are grieving. If you are
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: THE EMPTY CHAIR AT OUR CHRISTMAS TABLE
It’s funny how the threads of our lives intersect sometimes to create meaning, sometimes giving us a clearer view of what is before us, or what is missing. Our daughter Natalie Wright is a curatorial assistant at a Milwaukee arts research institute called The Chipstone Foundation. One of her recent projects involved writing about
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: A Time to Feel Grateful, Sometimes After Loss
My husband Jim and I are packing this morning – we’ve got an early morning flight tomorrow to Dayton, Ohio. Our daughter Natalie’s boyfriend grew up there and we’re all meeting at his family home to celebrate Thanksgiving. Sipping my coffee, I began to think of all things I’m grateful for
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: MEETING FEAR WITH COURAGE IN CAREGIVING
I was speaking with a friend today about fear in caregiving. The fear that we might forget something very important, the fear that dismissing a symptom now could provoke a crisis later, the fear that we are not good enough in the face of love and serious illness. As it happens, my
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: I Thought I Would Be OK, But I’m Not
My Mom passed away on August 16th at the age of 96. Ninety-six is a big number and a lot of years to live. When Mom reminisced about skiing down her street in Montreal as a child, I observed that her memory was 87 years old. Of course I had
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The Duck-Rabbit Nature Of How We Experience Life – Helena de Bres
Helena de Bres writes about how Philosophy if you’re doing it right, is an absurd practice. What I found interesting about her essay is the idea of the two perspectives we shift between as hypothesized by Thomas Nagel (“One [perspective] is that of the engaged agent, seeing her life from
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: The Unfairness of Caregiving
I’ve been trying to remember the first time I felt the outrage of injustice. I recall that in about grade four, I was playing outside my school when the bell rang to announce the end of recess. It was winter and the snow was piled up high beside the school.
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: THE WEIGHT OF LOVE IN DEMENTIA CAREGIVING
Recently I had the immense pleasure of reading every poignant and fascinating word in a literary magazine called The Sun. The January, 2016 edition is on the subject of care. I highly recommend this magazine (and particularly this edition) to car…
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: A Remarkable Story of Banishing Grief After Loss
KarolinaJonderko is a Polish photographer who nursed her beloved mother throughout a frightful journey to end with cancer. After her mother died, Jonderko realized that she’d forgotten all the happy memories of family life before cancer. So she took a remarkable decision. Jonderko decided to photograph herself wearing her mother’s
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: It’s Scary Being an Aging Caregiver
Growing older always involves some kind of loss. For my Mom, it meant giving up her beloved car. To Mom, a car has always represented freedom and independence. She fancies herself as a kind of Canadian Thelma or Louise – ‘I’ve had it up to my ass in sedate!’ would
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM - A Blog by Donna Thomson: Weeping in Public Places
Forgive me, I have been crying. Today I wept while driving, when I saw an old couple hug on the sidewalk. I wiped my cheeks as I watched the post office clerk weigh my letter and add up the international postage for my letter of condolence to an old and
Continue readingWorld Headlines Review: Bangladesh: Dabbling in Dhaka Stock Markets
A classic stock market boom-bust cycle is underway in Bangladesh, inciting riots after the closure of the country’s main markets in Dhaka and Chittagong this week. The picture painted by the charts and reports from Bangladesh make for an abject lesson in how markets fluctuate and are driven by salesmanship
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