A Season of Caring Podcast

Send us Fan Mail Freedom is easy to celebrate until caregiving makes it feel out of reach. When your days are shaped by medications, appointments, routines, and constant mental load, it can feel like your world quietly shrinks. And on the other side, the person you love may feel their freedom slipping too as they grieve driving, privacy, and the ability to make decisions without help. We name that...

Send us Fan Mail Caregiving can dismantle the easy answers you used to lean on and leave you with a faith that feels raw, quiet, and intensely personal. I’m talking about the kind of faith that shows up in sleepless nights, in hospital rooms, and at the kitchen table with paperwork spread out, when you realize you do not have the strength to carry everything you’re carrying. We walk through five w...

Send us Fan Mail Five years after my book No Regrets: Hope for Your Caregiving Season released, I’m taking you inside the message that has come back to me in emails, reviews, and tearful “me too” notes from family caregivers. If you’ve ever felt isolated by Alzheimer’s disease, dementia care, or the nonstop mental load of caregiving, I want you to hear this clearly: you are not alone, and God is n...

Send us Fan Mail Picture this: you’re scheduling the appointments, managing the meds, and making sure they’re safe, while a part of you is still carrying the memories of harsh words, neglect, or a home that never felt emotionally safe. That’s the reality for many family caregivers, especially during seasons like Mother’s Day and Father’s Day when everyone else seems to be celebrating “perfect” par...

Send us Fan Mail You can pray for healing and still feel stuck in the long middle of caregiving. I get it, because I have lived those moments where I’m waiting for God to change the situation and all I can see is what’s missing. But what if the “miracle” you’re looking for is causing you to overlook the ways God is already showing up right where you are? I share a powerful memory from my time cari...

Send us Fan Mail Caregiving can start with a few check-ins, then turn into a full-time reality before you even have words for it. We sit down with Carol Evans, a mom, business owner, and fellow podcast host, as she shares the tender and difficult story of caring for her mom through a short, intense battle with pancreatic cancer. When symptoms looked like ordinary aging until a stage four diagnosis...

Send us Fan Mail You can love your family and still feel crushed when no one shows up to help. When you are the one making the calls, managing the appointments, handling the emergencies, and carrying the emotional load, loneliness can turn into resentment fast. We name that pain without shame, because those feelings are human and common for family caregivers, especially when siblings stay silent o...

Send us Fan Mail Caregiving can look brave on the outside while you quietly fall apart on the inside. We sit down with Mia Godfrey, a certified life coach, speaker, and author, to talk about the 11 month season she spent caring for her sister after an ovarian cancer diagnosis. With her sister in Montana and life based in Tennessee, Mia navigates relocating, caregiving, remote work, and the relentl...

Send us Fan Mail A sudden stroke can upend a life in minutes, but the real story unfolds in the long, uneven days that follow. We sit down with Lana Wilhelm—retired nurse, author of Stroke and the Spouse and Stroke and the Caregiver—to explore the hard truths and hopeful practices that carry caregivers from shock to steady ground. Lana speaks candidly about how medical expertise couldn’t prepare h...

Send us Fan Mail Caregiving can feel like carrying a secret storm—so many decisions, so much love, and a kind of grief that doesn’t wait for goodbye. We open up about the real weight caregivers hold and how faith, practical wisdom, and honest reflection can turn that weight into steadier steps. Rayna shares her journey through years of caring for a mom and dad with Alzheimer’s, naming the hidden l...

Send us Fan Mail What if the behavior that broke your heart was actually the brain asking for help? In this episode Rayna sat down with author and advocate Lori Jones to explore the hidden contours of Huntington’s disease, where genetics, uncertainty, and everyday caregiving collide and uncover the small, human choices that change everything. Lori grew up in an HD family, later becoming a legal gu...

Send us Fan Mail Caregiving can arrive gently maybe even without noticing or like a storm: sudden, disorienting, and unplanned. We explore how to find steadiness inside that swirl by remembering your why—not as pressure to push harder, but as an anchor that keeps love durable and presence kind. Rayna opens up about stepping into her father’s care after a health crisis, why a facility wasn’t the ri...

Send us Fan Mail Caregiving doesn’t wait for perfect plans or tidy feelings. Pat invites us into the real work of loving a spouse through frontotemporal dementia—spotting the first behavior changes, pushing for a doctor who actually listens, and choosing calm care over empty checkboxes. Her story isn’t about fixing the unfixable; it’s about dignity, advocacy, and the courage to do what works when...

Send us Fan Mail What if the hardest part of caregiving isn’t the tasks, but letting go of control? We sit down with writer and caregiver advocate Jackie Freeman, who walked a rare dual path: caring for her father through Alzheimer’s while supporting her husband through a seven-year battle with glioblastoma. Jackie’s story is equal parts tender and practical, revealing how small choices—like waiti...

Send us Fan Mail Enjoy the 3rd most listened to episode of 2025 with Joy Kats: What if the door you begged to open was actually protecting you for the work only you could do? That’s the tension we walk through with author and speaker Joy Kott as she traces the path from a failed kidney match to three sacred months caring for her father in his final season, and then to a later donation that finally...

Send us Fan Mail Caregiving rarely color‑codes itself on our calendars. One day you’re navigating an adoption that looks nothing like the tidy plans you imagined; the next day, you’re juggling a teen’s complex needs alongside aging parents in the hospital. Mandy Horne, a registered nurse and board‑certified health and wellness nurse coach, joins me to share how a late autism diagnosis reframed yea...

Send us Fan Mail A small change in behavior can rewrite a life. When Pat began noticing Don’s unusual decisions, lost words, and shifting patterns, the search for answers led to a Frontotemporal Dementia diagnosis—and a decade-long lesson in love, agency, and faith. We unpack the realities of FTD’s behavioral variant, why it’s often misread in midlife, and how a caregiver’s voice can and should sh...

Send us Fan Mail Caregiving rarely unfolds the way we imagine. Catherine joins us to trace a decades-long journey that started in childhood waiting rooms and led to the moment her father was diagnosed with Huntington’s at 80, long after her mother’s dementia and medical challenges had reshaped daily life. What follows is a candid, hope-filled guide to planning one step ahead, inviting family into...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when the child you love suddenly can’t face the day—and the usual fixes don’t work? We open up about a mother’s unseen caregiving: guiding her son through anxiety and depression after a cross-country move collided with the uncertainty of COVID. The story moves beyond clichés, touching the raw places—shame when friends don’t understand, judgment from well-meaning peopl...

Send us Fan Mail What if the hardest season of your life became the place where wonder returned, marriage deepened, and purpose took root? That’s the heart of our conversation with caregiver and author Cathy Bennett, who spent nine years walking alongside her husband Michael through ALS—and found a new kind of faith and community in the process. We open with the practical realities few outsiders s...

Send us Fan Mail Do you ever feel weighed down by guilt as a caregiver—second-guessing your choices, comparing yourself to others, or wondering if you’ve done enough? In this heartfelt episode of A Season of Caring Podcast , Rayna Neises gently reminds us that faith and guilt do not belong together. Guilt shadows many caregivers, whispering that they're not doing enough or that needing rest m...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when a healthcare professional becomes the patient, then becomes a family caregiver? Manjeet Singh's remarkable journey offers a powerful perspective on caregiving that few can provide. Manjeet joins us to share his transformative path from being diagnosed with ulcerative colitis at age 20 and losing his colon to becoming a registered nurse with over 15 years of...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when a self-described "overachiever" and "fixer" faces the uncontrollable challenges of caring for multiple loved ones with serious illnesses? Jackie Freeman's powerful story reveals the beautiful transformation that can occur when we release our grip on control and embrace faithful presence instead. Jackie grew up believing she could handle a...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when caregiving forces you to confront your most painful memories? For Susie Lewis, caring for her parents became an unexpected journey toward freedom and healing. Susie shares the contrasting experiences of caring for her mother with terminal cancer for 30 days in her mother's home, and later having her father live with her and her husband for four and a half ye...

Send us Fan Mail "Who am I outside of caregiving?" This question haunts many family caregivers as they navigate the all-consuming journey of caring for a loved one. Drawing from my personal experience of caring for my father with Alzheimer's for 14 years, I unpack the struggle to maintain our sense of self when someone else's needs dominate our days and decisions. Caregiving ha...