Ten years ago this week on a rain soaked afternoon, I picked up the first issues of Today’s Caregiver magazine from the printer. We immediately loaded them into a rented truck and proceeded to deliver them across three counties. Quickly, that personal delivery system became unworkable as we started our national distribution of the magazine. This newsletter came a few years later, as the internet was still in its infancy in 1995.

We started these publications as family caregivers who could not find the information we needed as we cared for our loved ones and are happy for the information we have been able to share with our fellow caregivers. We are truly grateful for the kind words that we have received from our readers in our tenth anniversary year, but I really need to thank the experts from whom we have learned the most – you.

We have learned about the true nature of the word, hero. We have learned that in every community and online there are people anxious to help if only we would reach out to find them. We have learned that there is poetry in all of us and the poems that we have received from family caregivers over the years are priceless. And most of all we have learned that you can tell the real character of a person by what they do after they receive that phone call in the middle of the night telling them that a loved one is in need of their help.

These ten years have been less about the printed word than learning to share what is imprinted on all of our hearts.

I anxiously look forward to continuing our support of family caregivers for the next ten and beyond.