As news of the past week’s event in Newtown, Connecticut, flood all media, it is most difficult to understand why. Why a school? Were there any warning signs? What about the survivors? Children exposed to violence at any age need to have the compassion of a resposible adult to make sense out of the senseless acts that have occurred. Please do your best to curtail media exposure to your children. My television and internet were off most of the weekend, as I felt my children needed to understand, each in their own time, what…

My thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected by Hurricane Sandy. I had spent a week assisting with the rebuilding efforts in Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina hit. That was the last time I had seen up close the devastation that follows a natural disaster.

As a husband and a father of two young children, there were moments I felt helpless when my home was among many that lost power. Our household is safe, but my condolences go out to those who have lost loved ones.

For about two years, I…

Objects tell stories. They tell us who we are, where we’re from, and how and why we exist in the world. There is great power in objects and I have experienced this power first-hand in the last day.

Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, has just concluded. It is a recent custom in less traditional households to send New Year’s cards.  My dad and step-mom have sent Rosh Hashanah cards to their collective six kids for as long as I can remember.

I did not open the one they sent in 2001.…

“Why does Grandma/Grandpa walk so slow?” Out of the mouths of our children come some interesting questions, sometimes within earshot of the person they are asking about.

Sometimes I wonder how many parents successfully answer their childrens’ questions. It may be embarrassing, but we will all be there some day and, rather than raise children who avoid elderly grandparents and relatives, it is best to keep these wonderful people in their lives and yours by giving straightforward answers.

How best to do this depends on the family and the ability to spend…

Mary Winters talks about why a home health care agency provides hospice care in a hospital setting, and why the Haven, VNSNY’s Hospice Specialty Care Unit at Bellevue Hospital, has the potential to change how New Yorkers receive end-of-life care.

It seems counterintuitive that a home health care agency provides care in facilities—especially hospice. Isn’t the goal of hospice to allow patients to avoid hospitals?
Most patients’ symptoms can be managed at home and they are able to die comfortably at home. At the Haven, our in-patient unit at Bellevue, we provide around-the-clock…

Summer is here and to deal with the warm, sometimes hot weather, we take to the pool or beach. As yet another report of a missing teenage boy off the New Jersey shore this weekend, I am reminded of another boy many years ago. I was asked to work the night shift on a near drowning 4-year-old boy. “Near drowning” in that he did drown and was brought back to this world but as a different child. He became the boy that couldn’t. He could never walk again, talk again,…

(photo by Craig ONeal)

Bringing home a baby is what any new mother wants, beyond all else. That happy, healthy bundle of joy that we have waited in anticipation for. For many this moment happens smoothly but for some mothers, it never happens. Fetal Demise, a diagnosis that no one wants to hear, but is happening in all ages of mothers. From high risk pregnancies and those with normal pregnancies. VNSNY Maternal Newborn Pediatric Nurses work closely with mother’s that are referred to us after a fetal loss.

The emotions run high for…

My family reads every night after dinner and for the last 2 years we have read aloud the seven Harry Potter books. For those familiar with these stories, there is a scene toward the end of the sixth book “The Half-Blood Prince,” in which Harry’s mentor and guardian Albus Dumbledore is killed at the hand of Severus Snape.  It is a moving and powerful scene for many reasons critical to the arc of the story. It includes the image of Dumbledore’s bird, a magical Phoenix named Fawkes, crying a haunting…

The film Steel Magnolias focuses on themes of friendship, love, suffering, illness, life and death. Within these themes the plot highlights the life, illness and dying process of a young woman played by Julia Roberts. Her mom is artfully portrayed by Sally Field. Toward the end of the film there is a heart-wrenching scene at a graveside. In it, the mom, played by Fields, is standing in silhouette, staring into the grave of her young daughter, who was newly married with an infant son. Needless to say, this is a difficult…

Nearly a year ago, when I wrote the blog When You Meet a Stranger’s Husband, I noted that I was rarely with family when keeping vigil. During the week I met with Ferdinand, I was fairly convinced that we would not see each other again. I was naïve to think this way since we live in the small town of Park Slope, Brooklyn.

Because the first anniversary of Isabella’s death is this week (Jan. 15), I wanted to talk about my unplanned reunion with Ferdinand. It happed on August 15; seven…