• Meeting Nancy Panko

    I was one of about thirty authors who attended the program, Authors in Your Backyard: A Celebration of Local Writers, held at my neighborhood library on a Sunday afternoon not too long ago. I arrived with copies of my book: Stories from the Tenth-Floor Clinic, and the syringes to lure readers to my table. I didn’t…

  • Learning to Heal

    I’ve long been a proponent of nurses writing their stories to educate the general public about what we really do. Here’s a book: Learning to Heal: Reflections on Nursing School in Poetry and Prosethat does that and more. The essays, from seasoned nurses as well as recent grads and “respected elders,” are set in the…

  • Computer Crash

    I have been without my computer for four days so I didn’t work on today’s post. I didn’t have a computer to track any other posts that I could reblog. I didn’t want to scratch out a new post longhand. Maybe I could’ve been more aggressive or use my I Phone to pick up the…

  • Back to where it started: Chicago

    I flew into cold, snowy Chicago last week to discuss my book at the main facility of Erie Family Health Centers. This felt like a dream as I stood behind the lectern gazing at the audience that, believe it or not, included a few familiar faces from some thirty years ago. I had been invited…

  • Spotlight: Marianna Crane

    Originally posted on Getting Older: Charting the Uncharted: This appeared in the September 2017 Erie Family Health Center Donor Newsletter ? Anniversary Spotlight: Marianna Crane ? Over thirty years ago Dr. Sally Lundeen, a nurse and Erie Family Health Center’s first Executive Director, spearheaded a project that would provide care for the underserved elderly right…

  • The Musical “Hair” Revisited

    Back in 1968, I stood outside a Broadway theater where “Hair” was playing and began to cry. My husband and I had just seen the play and were heading to Mamma Leone’s for dinner when I had an immediate need to feel despondent about my large body after seeing the svelte women dancing, at times…