Category: memoir
Writers: Write What You Know
"Write what you know" was standard advice in the writing classes I took as a beginning writer. I felt smug about the advice because I was planning to write a memoir of my nursing career, so, naturally, I knew my topic from head to toe very well. I did not hear a second part to …
Book Promotion – A Tribute to Amy
The e-mail was unexpected. The subject line - "Looks like we're having cereal for supper cuz Mom can't stop reading this book:)" - stopped my hand on the mouse. Should I open it? The sender's name, Amy Nagelkirk, was not familiar. Amy identified herself as a former nursing student of mine, since married, at Trinity …
The Nurse as Writer
For twenty-some years I taught nursing students. The curriculum in the four colleges where I taught addressed the different roles of the nurse, such as the nurse as caregiver, teacher, researcher, leader. Not once--and I chaired or had input into curriculum committees all of those years--did I think of addressing the potential role of the …
Hope College Tonight
A note from my Facebook page yesterday: "I'm eager to "promote nursing" again and to see old and new friends at Hope College tomorrow night-April 13, 6:30pm, Science Center, Room 1000. I feel like that old saying about farm boys--you can take the boy off the farm, but you can't take the farm out of …
Hope College, 4/13/11, Writing a Nurse’s Life-Why?
The next event for Caring Lessons: A Nursing Professor's Journey of Faith and Self will be on Wednesday, April 13, starting at 6:30 in the Science Center, Room 1000, at Hope College in Holland, Michigan. If you can, use Word Power Point to open the following sharp poster they've made. PresentationFlyer-LoisRoelofs If not, check under …
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“I’m Dewey’s youngest sister.” Grief revisited.
“I'm Dewey’s youngest sister.” These words of introduction hold unique poignancy for me. I've not been able to say them in a long time. My brother died an unexpectedly early and quick death from pancreatic cancer nearly six years ago. At one Thanksgiving collection of out-of-state family members he was there, at the next he …
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Emailing doctors – IN FAVOR!
Have you ever been beside yourself with some ache or pain? Have you ever felt helpless about getting help? Have you ever thought about crashing down the doors of the emergency room? Have you ever known you should not go to the ER because even though you felt like your situation was life or death, …
A Salute to Babysitting Grandmas
Once upon a time when I was in my late twenties I was the mom of a toddler and a newborn. I remember being on duty 24/7/365, similar to when I worked in nursing except I did not have every third weekend off like we did in the early sixties. I remember cloth diapers, sterilized bottles, …
Thanks to Women & Children First Bookstore!
Yes, I had the reading of Caring Lessons today at the Women & Children First bookstore on North Clark in Chicago. As a first-time author, I appreciate their cordial willingness to host me. And I'm thankful for new and old friends, plus two of my former writing teachers, that showed up. The staff told me …
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Write Along with Me 