I was in my office when hearing the North Tower of the World Trade Center (WTC) was hit on 9/11. It was jarring, for every reason shared by others and written about over the next twenty-five years.

Today, I’d like to talk about timelines. Nurses, and those of you on this path, likely use timelines to critically think through and solve problems.

After saying goodbye to Mom, several tasks needed completing before returning to Georgia, including a visit to the memory care center which served as her home for the past seven years, and later to the funeral home where Mom had arranged for services twenty years earlier.

“May you live in interesting times” is a familiar Chinese phrase that passes through my mind almost daily. Whether I’m reading or learning about people, politics, money, family, or national/world events, this thought is inescapable.

Today, National Nurses Week 2026 begins. While I don’t always keep track of annual celebratory milestones, this one isn’t ignored.

In the years prior to living in a trailer park and before moving into the rented, single-family home in which I grew up, my brothers and I spent a few years living with my parents…in the home owned by my grandparents…with my grandparents.

I recently celebrated a birthday, very quietly, which is uncommon for me.  Born on St. Patrick’s Day and with Irish roots, it has long been a day of considerable celebration. 

For the third consecutive year, Missouri’s legislature has a bill in committee about nursing home patient abuse, neglect, and wrongful death.