From the Caregiver's HAErt — Danita LaShelle Jones

“You actually trust him to babysit?” the woman asked me. Although it wasn’t my first time hearing it, the question still took me off guard. When our four children were younger, I was a stay-at-home mom. Even though our oldest children were in school, the twins had yet to reach…

“I feel like it’ll be a little easier when they start moving,” my friend said as we had lunch in a local sandwich shop. A laugh bubbled up and escaped my mouth before I could stop it. Thankfully, my friend wasn’t offended. But it was clear that I was laughing…

My legs were shaking, sweat was pouring down my face, and, because of the previous 24 minutes, my lungs were gently alerting me that a puff from my trusty inhaler was imminent. My laid-back trainer casually discussed his new media content endeavor as I executed a wall sit at my…

The entire day felt like a blur. Due to scheduling mishaps, a misunderstanding of departure time, and construction-related traffic delays, I had about 30 minutes to get from the airport entrance to the gate. Thankfully, I made the flight, and as the plane taxied down the runway, I concluded that…

The butter was at room temperature, the eggs were properly separated, the milk was measured correctly, and the oven was at the perfect temperature. My mother was about to make her famous pound cake. Although I wasn’t a cake person growing up, I loved it when she made pound cake…

To promote better health, the organization I work for is releasing a series of fitness and cooking shows to help people restart or jump-start their healthy life journeys. During a staff meeting, I was excited to receive the assignment of taking over logistics for the cooking portion of the online…

With knots in my stomach, I stared down from the high dive at my swimming instructor. After six weeks of learning to swim, the last part of our class was jumping off the diving board into 12 feet of water. At 11 years old, this was the most ludicrous idea…

Although I am familiar with air travel, I recently started working with an organization that requires me to fly more than I used to. Weirdly, my favorite part of the flight is the passenger safety briefing. Even though my favorite airline relies on a well-produced short video to explain passenger…

This one starts a little differently. Usually I begin my columns with a fun anecdote that connects to a story about our oldest daughter, whom we lovingly call Ladybug, and how it relates to the lesson I learned regarding her hereditary angioedema (HAE) diagnosis. At the end, I…

I spent years trying to catch the actual “pop.” Around Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter, my father was known for slow-roasting turkeys in the oven. He would meticulously clean and season them, place them in a special roasting bag with seasoned celery and carrot pieces, and cook them at the…

“Maybe chicken just tastes like everything else,” a person at our table responded. And as dramatic as it sounds, the entire table got quiet. In college, I had the privilege of making it into the Fisk Jubilee Singers, the 16-voice student group considered ambassadors for Fisk University. The…

Mosquito bites. That’s what my mom discovered on my back right before I started experiencing a life-threatening allergic reaction. The previous day, my parents, sister, and I spent a humid July evening planting 50 bushes to line the back of our property. This labor of love took us…