Welcome to Embracing the Full Catastrophe.
I’m so glad you’re here, and I’d be thrilled if you’d consider subscribing and/or sharing Embracing the Full Catastrophe with your friends.
"Am I not a man? Of course I've been married. Wife, house, kids, everything...the full catastrophe!"
-Zorba, "Zorba the Greek," the movie
I’m a wife, mother, stepmother, mother-in-law, Mimi to ten beautiful grandkids, and friend to more women and men who inspire and uplift me than I can count. Lucky me.
As a teenage orphan, a twenty-year-old without parents or siblings, later as the parent of a child who died (why is it we still have no name for this?), I’ve seen that grief and joy can and do coexist, that how we choose to see the world impacts who we become. That, in the end, it’s all about connection.
This principle, which has guided me in my search for meaning in loss, is the focus of my memoir, THE FULL CATASTROPHE: All I Ever Wanted, Everything I Feared, which I’m delighted to announce is forthcoming from Motina Books in February 2025.
A former speech-language pathologist, these days I write memoir and creative nonfiction and travel with my husband, Kevin. We’re both ambassadors for The Family Heart Foundation, an organization devoted to raising awareness of familial hypercholesterolemia, the common yet vastly undiagnosed genetic disorder that has impacted my family across generations, as well as high Lp(a). For more than a year, I wrote a patient perspective blog about this topic for WebMD. Please click on the links above and learn more. You may prolong or save a life.
I’d be honored to walk a while with you on your own journey through this messy life.
These mostly monthly posts will bring some combination of the following::
*News of the Day ~ topics that have caught my interest, often relating to grief and resilience and navigating the ever-present in-between, updates on the book, and other writing news
*Looking Back to Look Ahead ~ a reprise of an old piece, a new look at an old topic I've previously explored, or a revisit to an idea that's meant a lot to me
*Inspiration Everywhere ~ so many wonderful writers and books, artists and musicians and chefs, thinkers and creators inspire me
*Wanderlust and Reverie ~ photos from our travels or an occasional flashback to long-ago times, the people and places and experiences that have shaped and enriched me
