Several years ago, I read an article about the importance of patient advocacy. “Never leave someone you love alone in a hospital,” the writer said. The reason? The high rate of medical mistakes, some of which are fatal. After years of being at the bedside of hospitalized loved ones ‘round Read more…
One year ago this month, an anesthesiologist sedated me. Then a surgeon used a power saw to cut through the bones in both legs. When I woke up a few hours later I had two brand-spanking-new knees. They have served me well, too. Five weeks after surgery, I was dancing Read more…
That’s some powerful positive thinking going on, and it’s what one reader told me in a message a couple of days ago. Oddly enough, I woke up this morning feeling the same way, that belief having taken root in my brain. I sat up in bed and realized that today Read more…
Now that winter’s over for residents of the Mountain State (It is over, right?) I’m coming home. I think John Denver said it best. “Country roads, take me home, to the place I belong, West Virginia, Mountain mama, take me home, country roads.” I left West Virginia in the middle Read more…
Drum roll, please, for my newest book cover! If you’ve read Sister of Silence, you might recall that I ended my memoir on a cliffhanger. I promise, it was not intentional. Many readers later wrote, asking what happened after I left “Eddie”—because I simply didn’t say. I was so focused Read more…
Last week I said I would have a major announcement for you. Actually, I have two. Shatter the Silence, the sequel to my memoir, Sister of Silence, finally has a great book cover. I know you’ve been waiting very patiently to read the continuation of my life story, and I Read more…
Reaching a crossroads is never easy. That’s because with crossroads come major decisions, usually with life-changing implications. I’m there now, standing at that figurative place. I’ve battled an internal tug-of-war, and now feel stronger for reaching this point. More certain. And determined. I wish I could say more, but I Read more…
***CONTINUED FROM LAST MONDAY . . . Most of the time aboard the Grandeur of the Seas, I was either walking the track on the upper deck or immersed in a good book somewhere, hidden away in a quiet corner of the ship. After all, I had all those calories Read more…
Which story shall I tell you first? The one about how I almost broke my neck taking a tumble from the balcony onto the theatre seats below? Or how it felt to peer up at the underbelly of a jet airplane performing a very low-altitude landing few feet above my Read more…
It was almost midnight when she made her entrance, the beautiful, fair-skinned blonde with a red flower in her hair. Unlike most of the women I saw on the streets of Morgantown last night, she wore slacks. Not a sequined miniskirt. Three men, possibly of Pakistani descent, in a nearby Read more…