An Award-Winning Caregiver Book and a Poetic Sequel
Caregiving is a fast-growing family issue that spans years, sometimes decades. If you are of a certain age, you know that one day you will meet caregiving face-to-face. Whether you are the one in bed or the one bringing juice and pills, honest communication at the deepest level will get you through the roughest of days, and that's a skill that enriches any relationship.
Ms. Baker is a three-time caregiver and she has facilitated a caregiver support group in her home. She retired in 2003 from county social services to care full-time for her husband Richard. While she was still grieving his death from cancer in 2008, she assumed end-of-life care for her parents who passed away in 2010 and 2011 from Alzheimer's and heart disease, respectively.
Her first book is both a motivational how-to manual for those who struggle in their long-term caregiving role and a beautifully written memoir. More Than I Could Ever Know: How I Survived Caregiving has been honored twice as an outstanding book since its publication in March of 2014. Her second book Jarring A Tiny Bird is a poetic sequel to her caregiving book. Both books are available on Amazon.com.
More Than I Could Ever Know: How I Survived Caregiving
This book will recharge your own love story or make you wish that you had one like it.
Your lover and best friend is dying.
You will be taking care of him until the end.
You dread the day, fast approaching,
when illness will reduce him to
a little boy
and then
a baby.
How do you cope?
Jarring A Tiny Bird
If the lyrical prose in More Than I Could Ever Know: How I Survived Caregiving left you wanting more, you will love Dale L. Baker's poetry. Jarring a Tiny Bird is the poetic sequel to Ms. Baker's award-winning memoir. Follow Ms Dale L. Baker and explore her bibliography at the Ms Dale L. Baker Author Page on Amazon.com.
The poems in Jarring a Tiny Bird chronicle life's pleasures and traumas from a mature woman's point of view. The language is visual, often coquettish, and playful, but always powerful, dealing with love, loss, healing, personal mortality, and the sheer joy of writing.
Jarring a Tiny Bird opens with a dedication to one strong woman in Ms. Baker's life, her grandmother and ends with a poetic tribute to another, the teacher instrumental in Ms. Baker's development as a writer. The hummingbird theme alluded to in the title strings together emotional highs and lows of caregiving and widowhood and comes to a surprising yet touching finish in a tongue-in-cheek memorial poem.