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Winging It, A Story about Love, Loss, and Fifty Chickens is the first book I have ever written, and may possibly be my last since it is a memoir. How many times can I write about my own life? Plus, it was a labour of love that took me five years to finish.  At my age, I may not want to spend another five years on book number two! So this is my story (so far.)

Winging It is about how I approached the about-face my life took in my mid-sixties after my husband developed dementia. It covers the hilarious adventures we had moving from a downtown condo to a hobby farm to be near help from family, (I’m supposed to shovel what with that stall fork?), how I handled the heartbreaking sight of Bill’s loss of memory and abilities and then learned to move on after his passing.

I was inspired to write Winging It because I knew, intuitively, that my caregiving experiences were not unique, (except for the part where we turned into urban farmers – most people probably don’t go to that extreme.)  In this day and age, there are many more family members, mostly women, serving as primary caregivers for loved ones than ever before. And most of us are on what I like to call the “earn while you learn” program. We do our best. We make mistakes. We keep on keeping on. We “wing it.” And hopefully, we don’t beat ourselves up for the gaffes we make along the way.