Overview

This first-of-its-kind anthology is a moving collection of prose and poetry by 21 women who understand the challenges, and rewards, of caretaking, whether for parents and other family members, spouses, children, or friends. Offering support and validation to women who are now caregivers, it is rich with warmth, wisdom and wit. A comforting book to be savored and shared!

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9781945091131

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Reviews

In Take Care, Elayne Clift has done a great service, having assembled a richly varied and, most importantly, humane and illuminating collection of essays and poems about what it's like to provide care for a parent, spouse, or friend who is old and needs help...and about confronting their deaths. In a society where the realities of caregiving are so hidden, and thus information and support for those who provide it are sparse, this book is a sorely-needed jewel that helps and heals through the honest specifics of both love and pain, free from preachiness and from academic and professional jargon, allowing us to connect with every one of the writers. - Paula J. Caplan, PhD, psychologist and Associate, DuBois Institute, Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, Harvard University; author of The Myth of Women's Masochism. Elayne Clift's collection is an act of love. Gathering the voices of women - each straddling her own continuum of attachment and agency, swaying to the draining drumbeat of relief at what remains today and fear of what will soon be lost - this anthology situates the generosity of caregivers within the complex and compassionate relationships that define being human. It offers wisdom, reveals conflict, and reminds us that love of self and another are woven together to create our unique patterns of healing. - Ayesha Chatterjee, Program Manager, Our Bodies Ourselves. Who takes care of the caregivers? Who hears their stories? This stellar collection by women who were called to care showcases the voices of the carers. They speak of fears, regrets and practical and psychological costs, and they speak truth to aging, dementia, incontinence and love. The selections span cultures, geographies and illnesses while speaking to a central human need: to care and be cared for, and to find meaning in big and little moments. A valuable resource for any stage of the caregivers' journey, this book is a beacon of light -- a guide for the uninitiated and experienced caregiver alike.- Christine H. Morton, PhD, research sociologist and author, Birth Ambassadors: Women and Re-Emergence of Woman-Supported Birth in America

Author Information

"Elayne Clift is a writer, author, lecturer, doula, traveler, activist, liberal, feminist, internationally experienced health communications specialist, wife, mom, and woman of a certain age. Her first novel, Hester's Daughters - based on The Scarlet Letter - was published in 2012. In 2014, Elayne Clift and lead author Christine Morton published ""Birth Ambassadors: Doulas and the Re-emergence of Woman-supported Childbirth in the U.S."" through Praclarus Press (Jan. 2014). In addition to being a regular columnist for the Keene (NH) Sentinel and Brattleboro (Vt.) Commons, she is a frequent contributor to Women's Feature Service, Women's Media Center, Vermont Magazine and a reviewer for The New York Journal of Books. The author of two short story collections, two poetry collections, and a memoir, published under the imprint OGN Publications, her creative work appears in numerous anthologies and literary magazines internationally. Having been published in the Washington Post, Boston Globe and Christian Science Monitor, she now aspires to just one byline in The New York Times."

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