The Elephant in the Room is Cancer. Tea is the Relief Conversation Provides.

Caregiving

Parent Mentoring: You Are Not Alone

by Angie Giallourakis, PhD January 17, 2024

There are moments in my life that I will never forget. Most of them represent important milestones like getting married, the birth of our sons, the sudden death of a good friend, and the passing of my dear parents. I can recall them all. However, there is another moment I will never forget: the day of my son’s cancer diagnosis.

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Words Matter—but Supportive Silence Can Go a Long Way

by Christina McKelvy November 20, 2023

Over my father’s two-month journey diagnosed with stage IV Esophageal cancer, he had a parade of visitors. Each person shared something different, many not wanting to share out loud what we all feared.

“He’s strong.”
“He’ll get through this.”
“We need to pray harder.”

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It Must Be Me

by Maria Kreutinger November 1, 2023

As I lay there screaming into the ground, nothing came out, not even a faint puff of air. I had cried so many tears the day before from anger, frustration, and grief. I let my face just scrape up against the cold ground. It was the only way I could force myself to feel again: frigid ground attempting to wake me up. Waiting for Ashton Kutcher to tap me on the shoulder and exclaim, “YOU’VE BEEN PUNKED!”

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The Cost of Caregiving: Survivor’s Guilt

by Tara O'Donoghue October 13, 2022

If I could turn back time, I certainly would. I try not to live life in the rearview, yet, as they say, hindsight is 20/20. I also believe that we learn from our past so that we can focus on our future more intentionally. However, after losing a loved one to cancer after years spent caregiving, I have admittedly experienced some survivor’s guilt. It has washed over me in waves and disrupted the life and identity I once had.

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Living at a Crossroads: Juggling Caregiving and College

by Elisabeth Dodd September 13, 2022

Just a few weeks after dropping me off for my first semester of college in 2014, my dad was diagnosed with stage 4 kidney cancer. Suddenly I had two lives. One where I was home taking care of him and trying to support my mom. The other was at college, where I juggled the guilt of not being present at school with the shame of not being there for my family.

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My Place in the Family of Things

by Elisa Graydon March 7, 2022

My Place in the Family of Things: How Nature Helps Me Cope as a Caregiver. “Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting – over and over announcing your place in the family of things.” – Mary Oliver 

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Untangling Survivorship Together

by Kelly McMahon September 30, 2021

At the end of May 2005, my boyfriend Andrew was diagnosed with Acute Lymphatic Leukemia (ALL). He was twenty-two years old. I was twenty-three. Of all the things we were supposed to worry about in our early twenties, cancer was not supposed to be one of them.

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