A Friend Is What The Heart Needs All The Time ~ Henry Van Dyke
Greetings and welcome to “The Purple Jacket!” It is great to take part in the Holiday Progressive Blog Party with my extended family at 
Caregiving.com. To all my friends at Caregiving.com and especially those first time visitors to ‘The Purple Jacket”, welcome: It is so good of you to stop by!
To our new visitors, I started blogging on The Purple Jacket in 2011 after my partner, Bernard Richard Schiffer, was
Denise and Richard in Lake Worth, FL 2013
diagnosed with esophageal cancer. Given 3 to 4 months to live, Richard beat the odds and lived another 29 months before making his life transition in March of 2015. Along the way on our Caregiving journey, we met quite a number of wonderful people through Caregiving.com and I will always be grateful for the support of Denise and our extended family on Caregiving.com while on our Caregiving journey.
Now my writing on The Purple Jacket is focused on Life After Caregiving. As I found comfort in writing about our Caregiving experience, I am finding comfort in writing about what life is like for me after caregiving has ended. Below are some of my most popular blog post on life after Caregiving ends: When Caregiving Ends: Caregivers and Servant Leadership: Finding Purpose In Life: Relief, Sadness, Guilt and Joy: A New Bloom
I encourage everyone to look at the left hand column of “The Purple Jacket” where you will see links to our 2015 Pulitzer Prize nominated Caregiving story, as well as links to interviews that Denise conducted with me after Richard made is life transition, along with an interview Denise completed with both of us in 2013. I am sure you will enjoy listening to those terrific interviews.
What’s new and what is on the horizon? My new website “The Bow Tie Guy.com” will be live later this week. The new website will host all of my Healing Ties Radio programs as well as my new venture “The Whole Care Network.” When the site goes live this week, I will be sure to let you know. My first book, “What’s The Deal With Caregiving” was published in late October and I am happy to give away 5 copies of my book during the Progressive Blog Party! In January, I embark on a thesis project to complete my Masters degree in Leadership and Communication at Gonzaga University. I’m sure you will be hearing more about this project after the first of the year!
But most of all, I just want you to feel welcomed and comfortable as you visit ‘The Purple Jacket.” There have been so many things I learned
Chris & Richard 2011
along our Caregiving journey, and one of the most important lessons I learned is that Caregivers have the innate ability to understand each other, to be there for each other, even when our Caregiving journeys are different. That is why our extended family at Caregiving.com is so very special to me. Even though my Caregiving journey is over,I still feel part of this family. Feel free to reach out to me if you want to know more about my story.
Wishing you a wonderful Progressiveness Holiday blog party and a wonderful Holiday season!
The Purple Jacket 