"Family Troubles" by Bill Donohue

 – lessons in caring and caregiving

Across generations, learning to care and to give care both nurture and sustain.

Bill Donohue is a disability advocate living in Winston Salem. Most of his writing (ncwaiveractionteam.com) informs and prods legislative inertia for the 15,000 with Developmental Disabilities waiting a decade or more for services while potential caregivers struggle for a living wage. Bill’s first novel is a family’s saga with early onset dementia, chronicled in “The Kind of September,” Amazon (2013).

Author’s Talk

Bill Donohue

I write for therapy, much like journaling. It may be why my emails and Christmas letters are too long. Not electro-shock or heavy-duty therapy, just sharing—open, honest, often unloading, sometimes whimsically fun. I write obituaries and testimonials for aging buddies, notes to my unborn grandchildren, apologies, love letters, and even pissy letters to the editor. The Personal Story Publishing Project has become a surrogate therapist. 

The “Trouble” I wrote for the project and the “6-minute Stories” podcast, however, is the most publicly personal of my writings. I’ve had a very interesting life, full of challenges. I’ve also been inspired and enormously grateful to the support systems that have emerged with colleagues, my wife certainly, and family across the world. I’m a lucky guy, therapies notwithstanding.  

The Special Needs community is unique and one we all embrace or avoid throughout our lives. After all, we are only temporarily abled. We all enjoy “supported decision-making”—the new buzz word for a myriad of guardianship and parenting scenarios. It’s the “takes a village” thing to get us by. I deeply yearn—and even scream—for the day when our governments would become more of the supportive villages for those with special needs.  

From Alzheimer’s and not-so-simple aging challenges to childhood mumps and pimpled teen-age angst, we learn to adjust—maybe flail out some—but adjust nonetheless to our challenges. I’m glad the therapists and editors of our lives give us license to blather on! - Bill Donohue