Books
My books will teach you how to sensitively support someone who is ill or grieving.
Helping Through Illness
Practical Ways to Support Someone with a Serious or Chronic Condition
This easy-to-read guide will teach you how to sensitively and skillfully support a friend or family member who is ill—and how to take care of yourself in the process. Filled with dozens of practical, everyday tips, this guide will help you support your loved one with confidence. Amusing cat cartoons depict the realness of caring for someone with a serious or chronic illness—a reality that can be daunting, tender, taxing, bonding, and rewarding, sometimes all at once! All of us will need support at some point in our lives, and through this book you can discover the beauty at the heart of caring for another.
Helping Through Illness is such a useful and easy read! Each page gives a practical tip on what one could do or say when they feel awkward about how to genuinely help someone living with illness.
—Jeanne Lee, MD, author of Own Your Care: A Family Guide to Navigating Complex Illness, Declining Health, or Unexpected Prognosis
Helping Through Heartache
An Easy Guide to Supporting Anyone Who Is Grieving
This user-friendly book will tell you everything you need to know about how to help someone who has lost a loved one. Filled with straightforward tips, it will teach you how to skillfully and sensitively support a heartbroken friend or family member at any point in the grieving process. This heavy subject matter is approached in a light-hearted way using amusing cat illustrations to depict the confusing and sometimes comical awkwardness of loss. Written with compassion, informed by experience, and presented with levity, this indispensable guide offers clear strategies and wise advice.
I have never seen another book that gives advice with such a blend of candor, grace, and humor. This book is an antidote to that feeling of helplessness we often feel when someone we love is experiencing profound grief, as it provides practical and compassionate guidance on how to help. As the owner of funeral homes, I can tell you that resources like Helping Through Heartache are rare. Everyone could benefit from reading this book.
—Meg Schuller, Schuller Family Funeral Home and Cremation Services
Sample Pages
Helping Through Illness features the main character, Ailey Cat, and their Care Cat friends. It was challenging to come up with a name for a cartoon cat who represents someone with a serious or chronic illness, because there are no good words in the English language to describe someone who is ill. Words such as “sick,” “infirm,” “invalid,” and others sound negative. They also don’t work to refer to someone who is living with a chronic health condition but doesn’t identify as being “sick.” So, the character is named Ailey Cat, which feels like a more thoughtful way to refer to someone who is ailing.
Helping Through Heartache features Sad Cat and their friends. Sad Cat and Ailey Cat are intentionally gender neutral, and referred to in the book as “they.” I wanted the cat characters in this book to be inclusive and relatable to as many people as possible.
