It is hard to believe that it has been 2 years since I last posted. It does not feel like it has been so long. I posted in May 2021 that I was about to embark on a new career as a nurse. The first step of that journey was starting nursing school in September 2021. I am happy to report that I successfully completed the program with a Bachelors of Science in Nursing this May (2024). I obtained my Registered Nurse license in the same month.
Since then, I have been working as an RN in homecare in my local community. It has been amazing. I know that I have found my purpose in a career. It is rarely easy but I go home at the end of each shift knowing that I have done something good. My work has meaning to others. The ability to help others is tremendously rewarding and fulfilling.
I posted here a couple of times since the loss of my father but that was a huge event that occurred, in February 2022. It was something that I had to repress and place on the back burner in order to get through nursing school. I feel like I still have not fully processed the grief and loss of my dad’s presence in this world but it’s also something that I find it difficult to approach now. Grief is complicated. The feelings well up at unexpected moments. I miss him.
Thank you to a reader for finding this site and messaging me a couple of days ago about her search for a like-minded community and camaraderie. Her comment has inspired me to keep posting here. Soon, I will post again and get this ball rolling as it pertains to TBI stuff with my husband. A great note: in May (a big month), we passed our 19-year anniversary of being together. It has been 14-years since the accident that set our lives on this TBI journey. We are going strong.
TBI Spouse (and Others) 
Hi Erin,Congraulations on your BSN! I hope you continue to enjoy home health care. I really enjoyed doing it throughout my career. Initially, I worked half time in an in-patient rehab hospital and half time in the hospital’s home care division. I felt like the therapy I provided was much more targeted when I saw the patient in their home. (For example, I had a patient who had a stroke and was almost nonverbal. We were working on naming foods, a task I often used early in therapy because everyone can relate to food, but his wife told me “he doesn’t need to know the names of food. He eats what I put in front of him.” ) It’s wonderful to get to know the patients’ families. Ten years after I retired, I am still in touch with the spouses of some of my former clients. So sorry about your father. Grief is strange. Sometimes it feels like you’re past the worst of it, then something little will remind you of the person, and WHOOSH, you’re right back at the beginning. It does get easier over time, but certain anniversaries lay in wait to blow up on us, like birthdays, some holidays, etc. My parents died over 20 years ago, and I’ve come to welcome those suprise visits from grief because they remind me to think about happier times. And we do have to sometimes bury our grief in order to get on with life. In fact, I think being able to compartmentalize is a useful emotional strategy while working in home health care. You have to be able to put the last patient’s problems in a box when you walk into the next patient’s home. I’m just strolling through retirement here. I now have three beautiful grandchildren, two boys, 5 and 3, and one girl, just turned 1. Of course, they are gorgeous and brilliant. Unfortunately, they live in Pennsylvania so most of my travel budget goes to flying to Allentown, PA. I go 3 to 4 times a year, and my daughter-in-law is great about sending photos and videos. We are still dancing 3 times a week, and in fact, ran into Dr. Ladley and her boyfriend at a dance. They have taken up swing dancing and looked great on the dance floor. Susan seems very happy. She has moved to the VA hospital. She said she hit the glass ceiling at Denver Health. (If I’ve told you this before, pardon the repetition.) I am hoping to travel a bit more, since the pandemic put a stop to that for several years. We went to Japan in 2023 and hope to go again this summer. When we went in 2023, we had to be on a tour in order to be admitted to the country as tourists, so it was fast paced and we didn’t get to spend as much time as I wanted in some of the cities. This next trip, we will spend 5 days in Tokyo, where most of Kazuo’s siblings now live, then take the train to Kyoto for several days, then a train to Kazuo’s hometown in northern Japan. It’s wonderful that he speaks Japanese because I don’t think I am capable of learning such a distinctly different language at 72. Stay well. Say hello to Ed! I think of you guys often,Judy