Decades of comfort side by side Her soft four legged creatures. Hours and hours spent sitting in the peace of Her woods. Seven years on the couch of a good therapist. A Life lived becoming the Mother I wished I had.

That is what it took for me to walk away from the Ghosts of my parent’s unlived lives. My mother’s cut short by lung cancer. My father’s a tribute to his battles and losses with his own demons.

In the end — even as a child — I looked at them and thought — That’s just fucked up. And knew I had to find a different path.

Every nurse I know became one to work out her own stuff. Nurses are not born — we are “made” by the traumas of our childhood. We become caregivers early on and just flow into it as a career choice because it’s secure, pays well, and it’s already in our skill set — muscle memory.

May you have a transitional experience this birthday Dear Jack. May you know you and your life are More Than the sum of others. May you always know — you can change the story whenever it suits you.

Thank you for sharing your story — which is the story of so many of us. You are not alone. No one of us is ever alone.

With love and blessings.