I’m a former lawyer whose love for words has spanned my five decades but for whom it took COVID 19 to tackle writing a book.

At my age, most people are planning retirement. Not me. At 55, I found myself recently widowed and living solo in a family house. I decided to build a second house at the back of my Toronto property, move into it, and rent out my main house. The book I’m working on, Lane Change, tells the story of building of that laneway house, Chandlerville, and the mid-life reinvention that went along with it.

One day, I might get back to writing about the love and tumult that result when opposites attract in middle age. Jack, a heavy-smoking, older, twice-divorced Polish father of four, met me when he fixed my fridge.  I was a perpetually single, childless, Canadian-born professional. Our connection was strong, but when cancer tested the magnetism between us, we discovered neither was suited for the traditional roles of patient and carer.  The story of the caregiver I became drawing on my skills to manage, advocate, and organize fun is one worth telling. Just need the energy to go back there.  

How did I land on writing? Well, I won a Canadian Online Publishing Award for my series on Jack’s medically assisted death on rabble.ca in 2020. Since then, I’ve won the 2024 Eden Mills Non-Fiction Read at the Fringe Contest, and been shortlisted in several others, including the 2023 International Amy MacRae Award for Memoir. As well, I’ve had work published in Gemini Magazine, Ariel Chart International Literary Journal, Months to Years, CommuterLit, and Witcraft. I blog weekly from Chandlerville.