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Victoria's avatar

Thank you for sharing your experience, Mary Lynn xo and thanks to Kristina for capturing the bittersweet beauty in this article-interview.

I appreciate learning about other people's experiences because each one is singularly unique. I recognise and resonate with some similar moments, caring for Father. However, there were also multitudes of traumatic moments with less grace.

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Mary Lynn Garner's avatar

Yes, this interview came four years after the experiences it talks about--long enough to have lessened the acute memories of the multitudes of absolutely horrific moments that came between the moments of grace. These were also oh so real.

And in a way I can’t put into words, the unspeakable suffering intensified the moments of beauty and grace. I couldn’t really separate the two deep in the midst of the experience. Your ‘bittersweet’ comes close to saying it.

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Victoria's avatar

Yes! I've often said that caregiving involves seismic emotional amplitudes, we live through the greatest extremes, and hope the moments of calm between the swings can sustain us.

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Kristina Adams Waldorf, MD's avatar

Victoria - I would like to interview you and write about these seismic emotional platitudes. I have certainly felt them. I think it helps to name them. Would you be willing to be interviewed?

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Kristina Adams Waldorf, MD's avatar

That's so true. Thank you, Victoria. The difficult moments must hold space with the sacred ones.

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