I’m taking the day off tomorrow. Just going to the knitting club for a little while in the morning. I need some catch up time. I’m way behind in answering my emails, that almost never happens to me. I have started making notes for my next book, and I need to type them up on the computer.

I want to relax. That means not doing very much. Maybe sitting in my black chair and thinking about my new book, how I will put those stories together. It too will be a memoir of the days following publishing my book, Behind The Mask, and what happened to make Adopt A Caregiver into my new book.

When someone in my community asks, “How do I start a memoir?”

I have answered this way: One way is to start with a traumatic event in your life and just let those words fly out of your head onto the paper.

Another way is to use ten year increments.  So that means you start with your early life, 1-10. Then you go on to your teen years, 11-20 and so on. You do not have to write in order. You can write an anecdote or scene and then write about something that happened ten years later. When you have finished, then you can go back to connect all the stories.

The important thing is to get it down on paper. don’t worry about punctuation, spelling, just let those words jump outside your head.

It’s also helpful and healthful to do this. Julia Cameron says “to write is to right.”

Behind The Mask helped me through a very rough seven years, worrying about when the Alzheimer’s my husband was diagnosed with would begin in earnest. There were many days I thought, ‘This is it, it’s today.” When his diagnosis was changed, and I showed him my secret journal, he said, “You need to publish this.”

After publication, I realized this book was every new caregivers story. And I wanted to help the caregivers and that’s how Adopt A Caregiver was born.

It takes both passion and dedication every day to do something about it. Word of mouth is spreading, it is working. Doors are opening, people are coming into my life to help me. I feel blessed and I vow to spend the rest of my life helping caregivers. Maybe together we can wipe away some of their tears.

One day this will be a non profit organization, one day everyone will know what Adopt A Caregiver is. And one day when you type into Google search, the words Adopt A Caregiver, they will come up first.

Thank you all for your support and help and for opening doors for me that I never  thought possible.

You are in my blessings every night.

Keep love and kisses in your life. Helene