News…As of July 2025

Life became hard in 2022, when my husband was diagnosed with metastatic cancer. I was working on three projects, one novel of a family from 1940’s rural Wisconsin, Never Mind What’s Going On In This House, a memoir, The Condor and The Eagle, about a trip to Peru when I was tasked by a medicine man to exchange blessed water with a Native American, and a children’s poetry book, The Ice Cream Tree. The next three years dropped away all writing and art projects with the exception of poetry. I became all too aware of the hardship of being a caregiver, and the poetry of that experience evolved into The Other Side. I wrote this book to give voice to the caregivers who struggle daily. In the meantime, here is something to lighten your heart. Let’s laugh a little with poetry from The Ice Cream Tree.

Stinky Feet (first two stanzas of five)

William Hitchcock Gerald Pete
My brother, who has stinky feet
Says he, I can’t smell what you claim reeks
Says me, Keep away them stinky feet!

His shoes do hide inside them feet
But once he’s home sits on his seat
Plucks off his shoes, he’s not discreet
Keep away them stinky feet!