Author: Michelle Terrill Heath

 We needed friends who were strong and flexible enough to meet us right where we stood, not longing for another time that was no longer possible. Isn’t life a constant revision of our friends? Who we trust to stand with us in times of joy […]

I realized I was choosing to be his caregiver and in that moment of acceptance lifelines showed up. Caregiving became my job by default, because I never set out to be anyone’s caregiver. Family caregiving is like that. It happens when Mom falls and breaks […]

This symptom took us by surprise. Although the remedy is easy, it’s another loss. Andy and I have always shared a bed. The size of the mattress never mattered- only that we shared it. After 47 years of marriage, we’ve shared beds in houses, on […]

In family caregiving, we caregivers have daily jobs that can try even the most patient among us, and the miracles never come often enough. But they do come. There are moments in family caregiving, just as in parenting, sailing and soldiering, that transcend the tiresome […]

As for me, in our first week I was assigned the class of the youngest children and I had a two year old named Stanzin. Before leaving India, our participation in daily life at the orphanage and school had honed our abilities in living well […]

 Andy spelled it out for them, “I expect you will learn a lot from me in building this bridge together and I expect I will learn as much or more from all of you.” At the time, it was an unheard of idea to the […]

I procured the Oreos for Passang and was rewarded with her bright smile. I cherished her smiles like precious jewels because they didn’t come that often and represented, to me, a resilient healing heart. The whole class liked Oreo cookies, but Passang, my one nine […]

The dour teacher smiled, which was my personal reward. The children were excited for our class party. I had been able to procure guava juice and Oreo cookies at the Kumar Store in Dehradun. It was a favorite shopping place for me because they carried […]

Andy was asked to design and build a 120 foot long suspension bridge, with a team of men who worked at the orphanage. Jackson Browne sings in Fountain of Sorrow, “And while the future’s there for anyone to change, still you know it seems, it […]

“I feel grumpy.” I had said that morning when it was my turn, and a lot of the kids had followed my lead. In the midst of our grumpy group, I thought about the monkeys who had passed by me earlier and I announced, “We […]