Tag: family

caregiving

Caregiver Appreciation Day

Lisa Tomey-Zonneveld
Photo by Kampus Production on Pexels.com

Caregiver Appreciation Day is March 3, 2026. This day honors those who selflessly care for others’ welfare. This follows National Caregivers Day in February, affiliated with Home | The National Alliance for Caregiving With a similar focus, it makes sense that there be more than one day in the year to recognize the most important caregivers of life and life preservation. There is also Caregiver’s Month is November. Caregiver Action Network (CAN) is the nation’s leading family caregiver organization. Caregiver Action Network: Resources for Family Caregivers

I’ve been a caregiver many times, finding no role more meaningful, at least for me. When I say this, I am talking about many aspects of caregiving, whether it be working together with a team, working in a compact unit such as family caregiving, or caregiving as an individual unit. And there are other types of caregiving. Certain caregivers get compensated; others do not. The greatest pay is the satisfaction of feeling confident in knowing that others get the care they truly need.

Share your journey as a caregiver. What support was available to help you in this role? I put together a section in my book, Caring for Souls: “Stress Management for the Caregiver”

Caregivers and receivers alike are vulnerable to stress. Stress affects health and personal relationships. If your resources to handle situations are low or depleted, there is more vulnerability to becoming ill or to have much confusion.

Having experienced caregiving roles and intermediary positions, I understand the necessity of evaluating effective and ineffective methods. These are simply suggestions. You, of course, do what works for you.

Ideally, one of the best ways to manage stress is to build an arsenal of awareness which is stocked daily. Some items that may help:

· Assertiveness. Develop the skill to decline activities that destabilize your energy and time.

· Feelings Checks. Communicate how you feel. This clears the air and helps you recognize the value of feelings. How often have we held onto certain feelings and discovered that once we communicate them, we heal?

· Have fun! Don’t let life pass by without savoring its joys. Take the time to play games, read, work on creative projects, play music, go to movies, stay in for movies, go out to eat or order in, and do whatever you truly enjoy.

· Exercise. You needn’t run marathon distances. Enjoy the outdoors, walk through your neighborhood, or visit local shops or fitness centers. Senior centers offer many options for exercise and fun. Some even have adult day programs for your person.

· Journal. Keep a journal for yourself, along with encouraging the family to do the same. This provides release, insight, problem-solving, and personal documentation. They also come in handy when going to medical appointments.

· Flexibility. Sometimes it seems like a day is full of compromises. When caring for others, you often have to change plans to meet their needs. Accepting that each day has surprising moments makes it easier to handle whatever comes your way.

· Nutritional meals. Feed your internal arsenal to build stamina and energy stores. Treat yourself to foods you like and make meals a featured event. If able, it can be a fun activity to prepare meals with your person. Maybe they can prepare the table, wash produce, do other meaningful work, or simply stay with you as you prepare.

· Medication and supplements. Sustained use of prescribed medication is essential. Supplement the diet with necessary vitamins and minerals.

· Engagement. Involve your family member who has medical needs in activities you enjoy. Of course, safety first. This helps to build strong, healthy relationships. Getting others involved in activities also helps with socialization.

· Respite. If workable, please steal moments from your family. Other family members or friends could provide respite care. If this is not possible, then check into respite care programs in the community. Note: for end-of-life care, such as in-home hospice, it is more difficult to manage. Even a step outside is supreme relief.

· Reality Checking. Expect some frustrating days. Accepting that there are going to be these days will help you release stress. Be good to yourself. On unpleasant days, try your best to adapt.

LindaAnn LoSchiavo, a caregiver for her mother, who had terminal cancer, expressed her story well in her chapbook Cancer Courts My Mother.” She put together this video, and I believe it illustrates what people can relate to as a caregiver and helps to increase awareness.

Caregivers will derive comfort and solace from the poems in LindaAnn LoSchiavo’s award-winning book “Cancer Courts My Mother” AND in this special horoscope she has created for all the volunteer caregivers out there. 

Sample of Cancer Courts My Mother https://buy.bookfunnel.com/db5iql4jef

Announcements, Book Announcements, Book Funnel, caregiving, poetry

When Cancer Enters the Family

Lisa Tomey-Zonneveld

When someone you love is diagnosed with late-stage cancer, language shifts.

Ordinary words—appointment, waiting room, prognosis—take on new gravity. Time bends. Conversations sharpen. Silences grow louder.

In Cancer Courts My Mother, LindaAnn LoSchiavo transforms that altered landscape into poetry that is intimate, unsparing, and profoundly human.

When Cancer Enters the Family

This is not a clinical account of illness.

It is a daughter’s reckoning.

A caregiver’s vigil.

A complicated love story between mother and child—layered with devotion, resentment, memory, humor, and the quiet tenderness that surfaces when the end approaches.

Across 25 poems, LoSchiavo gives voice to:

  • The exhaustion of caregiving
  • The ache of unresolved history
  • The strange flashes of beauty inside sorrow
  • The love that refuses to leave

Her poems do not look away. But they also do not surrender to despair.

Instead, they ask:

What does it mean to accompany someone to the threshold?
How do we hold grief and grace in the same hand?
What remains when words fail?

Why Readers Are Saying Yes

Readers and reviewers have described the collection as:

  • “Candid and unflinching.”
  • “A testament to complicated love.”
  • “Tender without sentimentality.”
  • “A lyrical exploration of resilience.”

The poems resonate because they speak to universal themes—loss, reconciliation, anger, hope, and the stubborn persistence of love—even as they remain deeply personal.

If you have ever:

  • Managed medications and memories
  • Struggled with unfinished conversations
  • Loved someone through decline

You will recognize yourself here.

A Voice of Candor and Grace

LindaAnn LoSchiavo writes with clarity and restraint. Her lines are spare yet resonant. Her images—closets, gardens, corridors, dance-like metaphors of movement and stillness—carry emotional weight without excess.

There is sorrow here.

But also wit.

There is anger.

But also forgiveness.

And, perhaps most powerfully, there is presence.

Receive a Free Sample

If you’re curious about the emotional depth and artistry of this collection, we invite you to experience it for yourself.

Read a free sample of Cancer Courts My Mother and step into a poetic journey that honors both the fragility and the fierce beauty of love at the edge of loss.

✨ Inside the sample, you’ll discover:

  • Selected poems from the collection
  • A glimpse of LoSchiavo’s lyrical voice
  • An intimate portrait of caregiving and connection

Let these poems accompany you—whether you are navigating illness, remembering someone you’ve lost, or simply seeking language for the complexities of love.

Get your free sample now and begin reading today.

Because sometimes poetry says what prose cannot.

And sometimes, when everything feels uncertain, a poem is the one steady thing left to hold.

View more at https://www.prolificpulse.com/lindaannloschiavo

Announcements, Book Announcements, book launch

Chyrel J Jackson Recites “Americans was My Grandmother’s Glory”

Lisa Tomey-Zonneveld

SPOTIFY

We’ve been on a hot run with celebrations in honor of the new release of Chyrel J Jackson’s poetry collection “Unsung Canaan Ballads.” In the meantime, Chyrel has recited the abovementioned recording in honor of her grandmother, Catherine. The poem is inspired by Grace Wisher, who was involved in the making of the American flag. There’s a link in the show notes to check out more about Grace Wisher.

Be sure to check Chyrel’s book out at this link: UNSUNG CANAAN BALLADS There are various purchasing options, including a special direct purchase link.

See you on February 22 at 2 p.m. EST for the next Book Launch! Be sure to register:

non-fiction, Personal Essay, poetry, Senior Health

World Cancer Day – February 4, 2026

Lisa Tomey-Zonneveld
Photo by Tara Winstead on Pexels.com

As we enter World Cancer Day, how I wish this were a topic that we could just sweep under the carpet. Unfortunately, when faced with cancer, it’s unavoidable. It will not bring out a Pollyanna in me. It has had too strong an effect on my family and friends.

Therefore, pausing for thought for one full day becomes significant. What has cancer done to change our lives? What losses have we experienced? Is there any year that passes without your considering cancer as a potential cause for an ill feeling?

Cancer is sneaky. It worms its way into the body without invitation. I mean, last time I checked, I don’t recall asking it to visit my family members, yet here it came and did not want to leave. My sister had lung cancer. She had not smoked for years, realizing it was not serving her a purpose more important than life. Hearing she possessed this was unexpected.

Yes, it responded to treatment, including partial lung removal, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy. Despite all she went through, she had a positive demeanor, believing in believing. Technically, the treatment cured her. Her doctor told her it would be something else that would take her, not cancer. She could travel to Alaska from our home in North Carolina and spend time with her daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren. For this, I am grateful. And I cherish the time we had together before she moved to Alaska. She ended up with a few short years before she passed away. Her heart had spent enough time on earth.

Has cancer affected you? What is your story?

As a caregiver for more than one cancer patient, I wrote this poem, based on personal experience.

Hearts to Hands

As you lay in the hospital bed I was lost.

You were jaundiced, dying, and needing care.

You looked into my eyes:

“my feet are cold”

Gently placing my hands on your feet,

feeling the thin parchment like skin,

and observing the golden glow of jaundice.

Mixing Vaseline with hospital lotion,

then warming the mixture in my hands.

Massaging your soles, arches,

and rounding to the dorsum

such warm flows, energy exchanges.

Stretching each toe, kneading the pads, some pop.

Our smiling eyes connect as softness pervades.

Warming your fuzzy slippers on the heater,

scrunching and easing them on your warm, softened feet.

Just standing with hands on your covered feet,

having a private moment,

energy pouring from my hands and exchanging hearts.

How I wish that moment would heal you.

Even if a new day meant another treatment.

Each day is the chance to show you how much I love you.

I do and you love me too.

Words did not have to be said.

I knew it when you looked at me and said,

“my feet are cold.”

Previously published in Fine Lines Literary Journal

The Cardinal is a sign of hope and love from beyond. This picture was drawn by Kayla Wygal and included in the coloring pages of Caring for Souls.

As depicted in this video, cancer is life “the thief in the night.” I would encourage you to view this and reflect.