In this caregiver spotlight episode, meet Donna O’Donnell Figurski. In 2005, Donna’s life was forever changed when her husband David suffered a traumatic brain injury one morning before they left for work. In this episode we learn how their date nights have evolved, what moving cross country looked like, and about Donna’s dream to get her children’s books published.
Listen to the show: Caregiver Spotlight – Donna O’Donnell Figurski
Please note this show has two parts.
Part 1
Part 2
Today’s Show Sponsor
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Words of Encouragement
Each episode starts off with a few words of inspiration or motivation that is pulled from the Happy Healthy Caregiver Jar.
Links & Resources Mentioned
- Donna and I both married our high school sweethearts. Donna shared her gratitude about her husband still being with her each morning and for her husband’s ‘HITYL’ notes in the morning. This acronym stands for their saying ‘have I told you lately?’. This reminded Elizabeth of her wedding song by Van Morrison. Unchained Melody was Donna and David’s wedding song.
- David was a professor for Columbia University in the city of New York.
- Donna realized she was a ‘family caregiver’ nine years after David’s injury when she was speaking to a publisher at a writer’s conference about her book title. Originally she had titled her book ‘Prisoner Without Bars’ referring to her husband David. The publisher corrected her and said the book title need a ‘s’ added to Prisoner since she and her husband were both prisoners.
- Donna’s family email updates (‘The David Updates) and her medical dictations after appointments helped her write her book for adults.
- Donna’s true passion is writing children’s picture books and publishing them is on her bucket list. She has written 30 children’s books just waiting for a publisher! She was a former first grade teacher. She shares about dealing with publisher rejection on what she calls her blog’s “But Page”.
- Donna is a member of SCBWI – The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.
- Donna mentioned how she identified with Susanne White’s Caregiver Spotlight when she shared about having difficulty in asking for help.
- Every night Donna and David watch a movie and she calls David her ‘Entertainment Committee’. 50 First Dates was a movie that came to mind for Donna that made her laugh but also shed light on memory loss. Here are some funny clips from this movie:
- Upside was a date night movie Elizabeth and Jason watched recently based on a true story and many parts will ring true for many caregivers (except many of us aren’t paid).
- Donna’s live show airs on the 1st and 3rd Sunday of every month as part of Brain Injury Radio on Blog Talk Radio. Her show called “Another Fork in the Road” later turns into a podcast.
- Learn more about Donna and her writing on DonnaFigurski.com and SurvivingTraumaticBrainInjury.com.
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Favorite moments & quotes from the episode
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