Last year, I was playing golf with a friend, Bruce Yablon, when the subject of Northern Westchester Hospital came up. Bruce was on the Board of Trustees and I was telling him I had recently interviewed and written an article about Marian Hamilton, the founder of the hospital’s Ken Hamilton Caregiver Center, which is a [...]
Recently, I accompanied my wife Jill to her annual mammogram exam. Since Jill was diagnosed with breast cancer 12 years ago, I do this every year. I would like to think I am getting better at the waiting room part, however, I still notice when waiting, my heart rate is a bit quicker, my thoughts [...]
Recently, my wife Jill and I were traveling home on the subway from a New York Knicks basketball game. Jill was sitting, and I was standing in the crowded subway car when a young woman, probably in her mid-twenties who was sitting, looked at me and said: “Sir, would you like my seat?” With a [...]
Last year, I wrote about the importance of increasing awareness and education for Hands-Only CPR, in large part because each year in the US, there are an estimated 350,000 resuscitation attempts. Nearly 70% of those CPR events happen at home in the hands of a family member. But there’s a particularly frightening wrinkle in this [...]
Grief comes in many shapes and sizes. When most hear someone is grieving they assume the person is reacting to the death of a loved one or friend. But, as family caregivers know all too well, when faced with the responsibility of providing care for a loved one in poor health, “grief” can be a [...]
My father-in-law, Stanley, recently passed away. Nearing 95 years of age, God bless him, he lived a wonderful life. Stanley was a character in the greatest sense of the word. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, he was street-smart and blessed with incredible raw intelligence. Stanley was a World War ll veteran, had a [...]
When I was 20 years old, flying to and from college, I was so anxious about the possibility of turbulence that I began driving the 1,000 miles each way to avoid it. It was at that point I decided to get a pilot’s license in an effort to confront my fear head on and learn [...]
This time, every year, the little kid in me starts to resurface. March marks the start of spring training for Major League Baseball…as well as the countdown to the season opener in early April. Raised right outside of New York City, I was a BIG New York Yankees fan. I grew up during an exciting [...]
We know how stressful being a family caregiver is. The unpredictable demands can make planning difficult and, unfortunately, one of the first things to fall by the wayside is “me time.” For the past 14 years, during my many conversations with family caregivers about the importance of daily “me time,” I usually see plenty of [...]
During the recent holidays many families gathered and celebrated together. This is often a time when you get to see family members you haven’t seen in awhile. And while wonderful, it can also be a bit startling, especially if an older relative isn’t quite acting “themselves.” They are more forgetful, maybe somewhat aloof or a [...]