A loved one’s terminal illness diagnosis can be terrifying. If we hold onto that fear and carry it into a caregiving role, we will be left exhausted, ill-equipped to cope, and feeling powerless. What’s more, we will find it extremely difficult to be the supportive, comforting presence our loved one needs—and the caring friend we need to be to ourselves to process our grief.

Through personal memoir, the author shares how allowing fear to rule her experience of her mother’s illness and death resulted in great difficulty coping. Several years later, when her husband of twenty-one years received the devastating news that he had terminal cancer, she was determined to approach this caregiving experience with love rather than fear. Through self-love and self-care practices, she learned how to manage her emotions, develop resilience, and be fully present to experience the joy and beauty of their final chapter together as well as process the pain of his passing.

For the Caregiver will show you how to access the greatest source of strength and power available to you—that found within. You will learn how to practice self-care and self-love through mindfulness, self-talk, meditation, journaling, and movement exercises. By allowing love to empower you, you will gain strong coping skills that will enable you not only get through this difficult time, but to be fully present to enjoy the precious time remaining with your loved one.

Tricia Perrier has a BSc in nutrition and food science with a minor in human ecology. As a human ecologist and member of the Alberta Human Ecology and Home Economics Association, she uses her training and personal experience of caregiving and grief to empower others and help them develop skills to thrive in their environments. She is the founder of Fabulous and Fit at 40+, a program that helps women age gracefully by developing a healthier relationship with themselves through self-love. She lives in picturesque Cowichan Bay, BC, on the southeast coast of Vancouver Island.