About The Author

Autumn’s Grace is my first novel. It’s a story of how one family manages the experience of palliative care with hope, humour, and grit, despite sibling conflicts, generational pulls and career demands.

I came to this project as a Registered Nurse (MScN) steeped in community and hospital nursing. My early clinical career included surgical intensive care, community care, and long term care, although, the bulk of my career was spent in administration and research. I have presented papers at provincial, national, and international conferences (nursing and gerontology), been an invited speaker to nursing conferences, authored book chapters in Nursing Management in Canada (first and second editions) and co-authored many research papers. In the early ’00’s when I experienced a cluster of illnesses with family and friends,  I felt compelled to write. The outreach programs at The School for Writers  – Humber College were instrumental in developing my confidence: The issues that worried me could be explored through fiction. However, that confidence wavers whenever I sit before a keyboard and attempt to create something from nothing.

I no longer practice as a Registered Nurse. Instead, I apply everything I have learned about health, communities, and organizations to my role as a volunteer. In fact, if I were to carry a banner, it would be printed with Margaret Mead’s observation, “Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” To that end, I worked extensively with the Waterdown Montessori School,  Hillfield Strathallan Parents’ Association, and a citizen action group – Friends of Rural Communities and the Environment (FORCE). In March 2013, FORCE successfully prevented a large industrial open pit mine from developing in north Flamborough.

More recently, I have worked extensively with two organizations: Greenough Harbour Preservation Association and  Greenough and North Bruce Wilderness Alliance. The former is a homeowners’ association; the latter is a charity that was registered in 2023 with CRA. The mission of the Wilderness Alliance is “to conserve and restore the natural wild environment of lands along the western shore of the Northern Bruce Peninsula for everyone and forever.” Over the past year, we have been delighted to enlist the support of individual and foundation donors, granting agencies, and a fellow conservancy as we seek to acquire a stretch of significant habitat. This last project and its associated writing and administrative requirements explain the absence of an updated blog on books and theatre. I will return to celebrating other creatives in 2025.

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