Tag Archives: purpose

Elizabeth Aquino: Who Am I Without All of This?

October 17, 2017Podcastadvocate, caregiver, caregiving, creativity, disability, disability advocate, extreme parenting, fragmentation, identity, meaning, mother, mothering, parenting, pastry chef, purpose, rights, value, writerDianeMcDaniel

Elizabeth Aquino is writer, disability advocate, and pastry chef. Elizabeth talks about the struggle to understand her own identity as separate from that of her now 22-year-old daughter, Sophie, who is profoundly disabled, as well as how the style in which she writes reflects this fragmentation of identity. Elizabeth also talks about the importance of creativity, what it means to give care to someone until one of you dies, and the questions that this caregiving raises about the value of a life and what it means to be human.

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Patrick Norris: Finding Purpose in Offering Comfort and Hope

July 18, 2017Podcast12 Step, AA, Alcoholics Anonymous, cancer, chemotherapy, comfort, community, hope, meaning, Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, Parenthood, Patrick Norris, purpose, radiation, sobriety, survivorship, The Shirt, TV director, wifeDianeMcDaniel

Patrick Norris is a television director who in 2003 was diagnosed with Stage III non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. In today’s episode, Patrick recounts the central role his wife, Jody, played in helping him find the right treatment and how he wore the same comforting shirt during each of his chemotherapy treatments. Patrick talks about losing his sobriety of 18 years during chemotherapy, and his subsequent search to find meaning and purpose by connecting with others who are in treatment for cancer and providing them with a measure of comfort and hope.

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Marissa Weiss: Managing Fear by Reframing Experience

May 30, 2017Podcastbreast cancer, cancer, children, death, decision, diagnosis, double mastectomy, fear, husband, laughter, mastectomy, meaning, personal decision, purpose, traumaDianeMcDaniel

The fear that patients and their loved ones experience is one of the most difficult aspects of a cancer diagnosis. In addition to managing the fear of death, how do cancer patients with kids cope with the fear that their children will lose a parent?

Today I’m speaking with Marissa Weiss, mother, teacher, and dancer, who in 2016 was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a double mastectomy and reconstruction as part of her complex cancer treatment. Marissa talks about dealing with the overwhelming fear that her young children might grow up without their mother and how her husband’s sense of humor and the laughter they shared served an antidote to the terror they experienced throughout the process. Marissa also reflects on the very personal decision to have a double mastectomy and how she has coped with trauma by being in the moment, making meaning, and finding purpose in her cancer experience.

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