The 2024 edition of Peregrine, the journal of Amherst Writers, is focused on caregivers and caregiving. I am so proud to have 2 poems included in this beautiful, moving anthology. Both my poems are about difficult situations I experienced as a Hospice RN. The first one titled, “The Necessary Piece,” is about a broken washing machine. Often it is one seemingly small thing that matters extraordinarily. The wife of the patient had worked so hard through his illness and decline to keep her husband comfortable, clean and dignified. This included a lot of washing. One day when I visited, I saw her in tears for the first time. A repairman had come to repair her washer and told her it would take a week to get the part to fix it. We only had a week or so left. I got on the phone to Sears immediately and requested, if not the part, then a loaner washer. It took me four managers until I found someone sympathetic to the situation. Then, miraculously, a second repairman appeared in an hour with the exact piece we needed!
The second poem, “Emergency Number,” is about a dialog I had with a caregiver who had totally lost it with her demented and uncooperative husband, as I raced to her home. This was a heartbreaking situation, but one that did finally resolve. I hope the message in the poem is how very, very difficult caregiving can be, especially over time.
Peregrine hosted a Zoom reading for us to share our work. I loved connecting with the other writers this way, many of them caregivers. This volume is a must-read for anyone dealing with a sick loved one or somehow involved in such care. Thank you, Amherst Writers, for recognizing the ones who stand and serve.