narrative medicine
Writing as Remedy for What Ails Us: WBUR
Sunday, November 19th, 2017
Touching our souls means wrestling with what makes us uncomfortable. My wrestling mat is a blank page and a pencil. I write about illness, depression and death, and about what can happen to a child despite a parent’s best efforts to protect him or her. As a teacher, I help draw life stories from homeless mothers, at-risk teens, and those who have experienced physical and mental illness.
READ THE FULL PIECE ON WBUR
Releasing Stories, Revealing Selves: Prison Writes
Sunday, November 19th, 2017
It’s Friday afternoon and I am on my way to Brooklyn where, every other week, I will meet social worker and Prison Writes founder Jessica Hall. Together, we facilitate a group consisting of young women in a gender based support program for women who have been criminal justice involved. Traveling with me are my insecurities. Is what I am doing, trying to draw stories from women who face so many challenges making any difference in their lives? It is not just the legal system, it is the educational system, the healthcare system, the housing system, as well as family systems. READ THE FULL PIECE ON PRISONWRITES.ORGMy Father’s Dying Days Showed Me There’s No Such Thing as “Death with Dignity”: Narrative.ly
Sunday, November 19th, 2017
My father is dying and no one is trying to save him. “You don’t even give IV fluids?” I ask the hospice nurse. “No, he’s on his own journey now.” But a person can’t travel without water, I think. I try to be reassured by the nurse’s words even as I see my father grasp for the liquid-soaked sponge lollipop we place against his parched lips. The thimble of water remains pooled in his mouth. Alzheimer’s disease doesn’t just make minds weak; bodies, too, forget how to function. READ THE WHOLE PICE ON NARRATIVE.LY
