Earlier this month I was interviewed by Jo Ellen Newman, the CEO of Transforming Your Tomorrows. If you missed last week’s installment, you can catch it and all of my past newsletters on my blog at ErinCopelan.com
We all go through major shifts in life. What was it like for you to go through this major shift?
We received the news of Jerry’s cancer diagnosis right after we returned from Tanzania. It was the trip of a lifetime. In one of our camps we were located near the base of Kilimanjaro. One afternoon a group of hikers came off the mountain and joined us. They were exhausted from carrying their big packs loaded with gear. Hungry. Muscles taught with the strain of the altitude. Gritty. I remember being in awe of them. The training, the commitment, the perseverance it must take to climb to such great heights. I had been living at the peak of life, gazing over the world peacefully. In ignorant bliss. Jerry had no symptoms. No discomforts. So his diagnosis was a surprise, it felt like I lost my footing and went tumbling down the side of the mountain. When I reached the valley below I found someone had strapped a backpack to me. A pack filled with… other duties as assigned…. things like being The Burro, The Kitchen Table Pharmacist, and Chauffeur. It took a long time to find my footing again, to learn to carry that pack and still live my life without it completely consuming me. It’s why I wrote the book. The caregiving community is grossly underserved and we’re a relatively silent group; because it’s really not about us. It’s about the people we love. So we don’t talk about how we feel. We don’t talk about the extra duties we take on. I felt like it was time to lend my voice to the Caregivers of the world.
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I hope everyone enjoys the upcoming week! Book launch in FIFTEEN DAYS!! <<happy dance!!>>
Mark your calendar for the March 29 book launch event. It’s gonna be a good time and together we are going to launch Caregivers to bestseller status. Stay tuned for next week’s newsletter topic: The Patient Handbook.