The Only Child Diaries Podcast

Send us Fan Mail Day 20 hits different when the hospital stay turns into a full-on relocation. Bill is finally recovering and we even have a discharge date, but getting from hospital number two to hospital number three (acute rehab) becomes a four-hour marathon of paperwork, waiting, traffic, valet check-in, and one very humbling reality: we look like a hot mess. I’m talking bracelets still on, an...

Send us Fan Mail A 60/40 blood pressure reading at 11 pm is the kind of number that makes your whole world go quiet. I’m Tracy Wallace, and I’m sharing a very real update on why there was no episode last week: my husband landed in the hospital after a string of scary episodes that looked and sounded like a stroke. He was slurring his speech, not making sense, and completely unlike himself and I ha...

Send us Fan Mail Sports are everywhere, and somehow we’re all expected to have strong opinions, favorite teams, and the stamina to watch a three-hour game on a weeknight. We’re not doing that. We’re getting honest about what it’s like to be a casual sports fan, why some games feel impossible to sit through, and how you can still enjoy the culture without forcing yourself into someone else’s versio...

Send us Fan Mail The part nobody warns you about after a big fundraising event is the second job you inherit the next morning: follow-up. I’m coming off a major work push and trying to climb out of the backlog with unpaid silent auction items, pledge drive confusion, and the urgent need to get revenue in before the fiscal year closes. If you’ve ever stared at your to-do list and thought, “How is t...

Send us Fan Mail If you’ve ever hit the finish line of a huge work project and immediately felt your body power down, you’ll recognize this one. I’m fresh off a major nonprofit fundraising event I led at my agency, and I’m talking candidly about what it means to work hard, work too hard, and then deal with the adrenaline crash that comes after the applause fades. When you’re a perfectionist with h...

Send us Fan Mail “I’m too busy” is the easiest line to say and one of the hardest to hear when you’re the one waiting on a reply. I’m Tracy Wallace, and I’m coming to you from a week where busy isn’t a vibe, it’s a fundraiser deadline, a mountain of details, and the reality of doing more without the administrative backup you wish you had. I talk through what “busy” looks like inside nonprofit even...

Send us Fan Mail Your pride can be louder than your problems, and sometimes it’s the real thing keeping you stuck. I’m Tracy Wallace, and I’m sharing a very real adulting moment from my own house: my husband’s hearing got worse, a hearing test confirmed hearing loss, and suddenly we had to face the next step. Not just the technology, but the feelings that come with it, the quiet denial, the worry...

Send us Fan Mail My cat isn’t “needy” in the cute way. He’s the kind of bonded that makes you rethink your whole schedule. I’m Tracy Wallace, and I’m telling the story of Bubby, my not-so-cuddly rescue cat who somehow became my shadow, my routine, and yes, one of my most codependent relationships. Bubby shows up at our barn like a lot of barn cats do, half-mystery and fully scrappy, collecting nam...

Send us Fan Mail Free time is supposed to feel like relief, so why does it so often feel like another problem to solve? I’m Tracy Wallace, and I’m talking honestly about what happens when work takes up your energy, not just your hours, and you reach the end of the day with nothing left for the life you’re trying to build. If you’ve ever wondered why you can’t “use your weekend better,” this conver...

Send us Fan Mail Your neighborhood tells the truth, even when nobody says a word. On a simple walk around my block, I start noticing the full range of “home life on display” we all live with: the perfect place that looks untouched, the normal houses with leggy plants and brown patches, the flower bed that needs attention. Whether you’re in a single-family home, a condo, or an apartment, the patter...

Send us Fan Mail One burnt piece of sourdough can teach you more about adulting than a stack of self-help books. I’m Tracy Wallace, and I’m trying something small but surprisingly hard: cooking at home just one night a week instead of defaulting to DoorDash and Grubhub. We’ve been homebodies lately between recovery, health needs, and the simple convenience of streaming and staying in. So ordering...

Send us Fan Mail Two weeks. One missing document. A login process that somehow requires a selfie, a scanned ID, and a phone number the system insists is “linked” to you in a very specific way. I’m Tracy Wallace, and I’m taking you along for a painfully real tax-season quest: getting my husband’s Social Security statement so we can finish our taxes without punting everything to a tax extension. Alo...

Send us Fan Mail Easter can be sacred, sentimental, or just plain sweet and I’ve felt all three at different times. I’m sharing the kind of memories that stick: going to church as a kid, the odd tradition of buying Easter lilies, and the absolute thrill of waking up to an Easter basket left by the “Easter Bunny” after I set out carrots on the washing machine. With adult eyes, I also can’t ignore t...

Send us Fan Mail Spring hits, and suddenly it seems like everything blooms at once. I’m talking about the kind of spring gardening that feels like a reset: wandering a gorgeous local plant nursery, getting pulled in by rows of color, and convincing myself I’m only buying one thing before walking out with petunias and violas. Along the way, I admit a very real temptation to shop QVC, including the...

Send us Fan Mail Your birthday can be your favorite day of the year… until real life shows up with heat, exhaustion, and someone you love struggling to walk. I’m Tracy Wallace, and I’m sharing a birthday story that starts with a simple belief: my birthday is MY day. Not a “big production” day, not a “perform happiness for everyone else” day, just a day where I get to choose what matters to me. Tha...

Send us Fan Mail Life has a way of crowding out the basics, until your body forces the issue. I’m sharing what the last several months have really looked like for me: supporting a friend through loss, handling the ripple effects at home, and then helping husband Bill through herniated discs, physical therapy and a nerve block while trying to keep my own life moving. Somewhere in the middle of all...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when the clock jumps forward, your diabetic cat needs precision, and a bobcat picks your block for a fly-by? We open up about a week where tiny shifts—sixty minutes, a pawstep on pavement, a chirp from a toilet—reshape everything from pet care to peace of mind. The story starts with daylight savings and the awkward dance of moving Bubbie’s insulin shots without rattli...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when your best intentions can’t outrun a crowded life? I open up about a week where everything hit at once: a demanding remote job, caregiving my husband, lingering duties after a friend’s loss, and a stack of guest pitches I couldn’t answer fast enough. From the outside it looks like flakiness; on the inside it feels like triage. I talk about the gap between being hu...

Send us Fan Mail What makes the Olympics feel so personal that you end up crying on your couch for athletes you just met two weeks ago? We open up about the real reasons the Games hit the heart: the grind behind those brief highlight packages, the unglamorous math of surgeries and rehab, and the way mental health pressure can rattle even the most prepared minds. This isn’t a sports recap—it’s a lo...

Send us Fan Mail Ever feel stuck between what absolutely has to get done and the few things you ache to do for yourself? That’s the tightrope we walk this week as I navigate my husband’s pain plan, an onslaught of rain, and a to-do list that keeps multiplying before breakfast. The theme is simple but stubborn: deciding what truly matters when caregiving, home maintenance, and your own body’s limit...

Send us Fan Mail What do you hold on to when progress backtracks overnight? I open up about living with uncertainty after my husband’s nerve block—celebrating the good PT days, bracing for sudden flares, and learning to treat every pain-free hour like a win. This is a candid look at caregiving, the messy timelines of recovery, and the quiet work of staying hopeful when the medical maze keeps shift...

Send us Fan Mail Some weeks feel like a collage: a cough that won’t totally quit, a cat who ignores dinner when the heat rises, a dog who thinks every block is a parade, and a lawn that finally answers back with the thinnest line of green. This conversation sits right in that mix—COVID recovery that’s mostly there but not quite, and the tender work of reclaiming energy, taste, and laughter one sma...

Send us Fan Mail The Covid cough won’t let me laugh yet, and somehow chocolate lost its spell. What in the hell happened to me??? That’s where this story starts: a real-time look at COVID recovery that trades drama for honesty. I talk through the positive test, the decision to get to urgent care quickly, and how Paxlovid likely kept things from getting scary. Then we get into the long haul—chest c...

Send us Fan Mail A scratchy throat, a stubborn cough, and a little denial—then a swab that changed the story. We open up about the week with a confirmed COVID case, the scramble to start Paxlovid, and the practical steps that made each day a little easier. From hydration habits and cough management to why gentle movement beats bed-bound stillness, this is a grounded walkthrough of what recovery re...

Send us Fan Mail Rain soaked Los Angeles, the Rose Parade turned soggy, and my holiday lights kept tripping like they were on a timer from the weather gods—so I used the mess as a nudge to start fresh. I share how a wet week, a sick spouse, and a very determined 14-pound chihuahua pushed me to restart my daily walks, rethink my habits, and listen to what my body and data keep telling me. We get pr...