Letters from Madelyn – Chapter 4
“And for This I Take Vitamins!”

Caregiver questions why she should take vitamins

I was asked to speak at our church on Mother’s Day, 2004 about mother-daughter relationships. I wanted people to know who she had been in her own words, so I went out to the garage and pulled down a large cardboard moving box my husband had labeled “Letters from Madelyn.” I read dozens of letters looking for this one.

After I did my little presentation, people came up to me and exclaimed, “You have to write a book!” I knew they were right, and I started on it the next day.

In this letter, Mom wrote about how she found peace and happiness from within by maintaining a “detached” attitude. Over time, this detached attitude evolved into what she called an “attitude of creative indifference.”

When I asked her if there was a difference between being “detached” and being “creatively indifferent, she said, “Oh, hell. There’s no difference. I just like the term “creative indifference” better because I think “detached” sounds a little cold. You can call it whatever you want to call it. What it means is not allowing yourself to become emotionally ravaged by the disease or the progression of events.”

Click here to listen to “And for This I Take Vitamins!”Play Chapter 1

If you’d like to order an autographed copy of my book, click here: Letters from Madelyn, Chronicles of a Caregiver, Second Edition