The Only Child Diaries Podcast

Send us Fan Mail A holiday decorating contest turned into a masterclass in rolling with the weather. The atmospheric river drenched our front yard display, shorted the circuits, and left our ten-foot Yeti with gravity-defying soggy fur. We didn’t take home the win, but we did find something better: perspective, humor, and a reminder that the brightest moments often come after plans go sideways. Fr...

Send us Fan Mail Holiday cheer meets home reality as a Southern California storm rolls in and puts a target on outdoor lights, inflatables, and carefully planned yard magic. I talk through the tradeoffs of beauty and safety—what happens when circuits shut down, mud takes over, and the sky ignores your calendar. There’s relief that it’s rain and not wildfire winds this year, plus a real wish that w...

Send us Fan Mail Joy doesn’t always arrive in a big moment; sometimes it shows up in a box that claims “25 minutes” and actually takes four hours, a friendly text from a great PT, or a yard that glows just enough to make strangers slow their cars. We set out to simplify holiday decorating after two hospital stays shifted our bandwidth, and we found a sweet spot between ambition and energy. With a...

Send us Fan Mail Caregiving rarely looks like the neat checklist people promise. We open the door on a week of small wins and stubborn setbacks: a partner recovering from bulging discs, the push to trade bed rest for hallway laps, and the work of finding motivation when every step aches. The house hums with real life—pets reacting to disrupted routines, a cat throwing up from stress, a dog glued t...

Send us Fan Mail Caregiving isn’t a tidy checklist; it’s a constant recalibration of energy, emotion, and logistics. In this episode, I'm talking about life after back-to-back hospital stays and what it takes to keep a home running when helpers still need help, the dog thinks every visitor is a threat, and the cat needs a calming plan to handle the foot traffic. That swirl forces hard choices...

Send us Fan Mail Dry turkey on one side of the family, rum-soaked pudding on the other—somehow neither tasted like home. This week it's a re-release of my favorite funny Thanksgiving episode, and I'm pulling you into a holiday world where salt was outlawed, bay leaves did all the heavy lifting, and stuffing came from a box you didn’t want seconds of. It’s funny because it’s true, and it’...

Send us Fan Mail Twelve days in the hospital can blur into a single, sleepless memory. After an ER stretch that felt endless, we finally brought my husband home—but not before the big question families everywhere wrestle with: skilled nursing facility or recovery at home.  I share a past experience guiding my thinking: my dad’s fall, a stint in rehab, and an underwhelming version of “more PT” that...

Send us Fan Mail The healthcare system doesn’t hand out a manual or a how-to brochure for that matter about how to deal with health issues. After a hospital discharged us with no pain meds and no clear plan because we declined surgery, we faced a stark choice: wait and watch strength fade, or push for access to a team that could actually help. In this episode, I walk you through the messy middle—h...

Send us Fan Mail This week's episode is abbreviated to say the least with my husband's health issues taking center stage!  Short updates on things going on.  Did you listen to last week's interview by the way?   If this resonates, follow the Only Child Diaries Podcast on your favorite app, leave a rating and review to help others find us, and share the show with a friend who needs a...

Send us Fan Mail What if the quiet of an only-child home becomes the engine for a louder, fuller life? Tracy sits down with Leslie Berlin to trace that arc—from a childhood shaped by early divorce and Sunday dinners with dad to a grown-up world built on cousins, neighbors, and in-laws who feel like true family. Leslie’s warmth and candor turn familiar worries into practical wisdom: how to learn co...

Send us Fan Mail What do you hold onto when the week unravels—when a hospital discharge turns into a maze of home care, a storm flattens your Halloween decorations, and the cat needs an ER visit at 1 a.m.? I walk through a stretch of days where everything asked for attention at once and explain how I kept moving by choosing a glass half-full approach.   We start with my husband’s recovery plan: tw...

Send us Fan Mail A cascade of pain, four falls, and a fractured rib turned a quiet week into a high-stakes navigation of hospital systems, protocols, and hard choices. We walk you through the unvarnished reality of being a caregiver when the lights of the ambulance meet the glow of Halloween decorations, the dog won’t stop barking, and the chart misses the most important details. From the ER intak...

Send us Fan Mail The week started with hope—physical therapy was finally helping my husband to build strength and balance—then it swerved into a nerve flare that turned my husband into a bedridden dependent partner that made me worry and exhausted at the same time. Caregiving isn’t glamorous; it’s small adjustments repeated with patience: finding a position that eases pain, measuring the day by st...

Send us Fan Mail Have you ever broken a promise to yourself for something that unexpectedly connected you to someone you've lost? That's exactly what happened when I subscribed to The New York Times after vowing never to accumulate publications again. When we moved from our apartment a few years ago, we discovered mountains of magazines and newspaper clippings tucked away in closets and...

Send us Fan Mail Have you ever had a revelation when someone you've known for years suddenly reveals themselves to be completely different from who you thought they were? Maybe you suddenly started spending a LOT of time with them and finally got to really KNOW them?  That somewhat jarring disconnect between perception and reality forms the heart of this episode's exploration into the co...

Send us Fan Mail The choice to drive drunk can destroy lives in an instant. On September 7, 2017, my husband Bill and I were enjoying a vacation in Las Vegas when a drunk driver slammed into our rental car at approximately 80 miles per hour. The impact was so violent that I genuinely believed I wouldn't survive. Our world transformed in that moment—from carefree vacation to a 20-month nightma...

Send us Fan Mail This week I'm celebrating three years of the Only Child Diaries podcast, reflecting on the journey and expressing gratitude to listeners across 58 countries worldwide. The podcast has grown into a global community where experiences of being an only child are shared with humor and insight. • Upcoming interview with Leslie Berlin, a fellow only child with a different background...

Send us Fan Mail Yeah, you get to a certain age, and you think, okay, there are some things I can do well....or at least good enough.  Discovering you've been watering trees wrong your entire life is not something I expected to learn about myself after hiring an arborist to help me with our aging tangerine tree.   A beloved 50-year-old tangerine tree planted by my father back when I was a tee...

Send us Fan Mail If you're a regular listener you already know I've talked a lot about grief.  It gets to be a bigger part of life as you go along.   Saying goodbye isn't a single moment but a journey that unfolds in unexpected layers over time. After keeping my horse Dallas's stall for over a year following his sudden passing, I 'm finally facing the last tie with the bar...

Send us Fan Mail Homeownership can feel like navigating uncharted waters without a compass. That sinking feeling when you hear an unfamiliar noise in your house? It happened to me recently, and what followed was both educational and let's face it, expensive.   When I moved into my parents' home, I quickly discovered that years of deferred maintenance meant something broke literally every...

Send us Fan Mail Tracy celebrates three years of podcasting with the Only Child Diaries, now reaching listeners in 54 countries and 593 cities worldwide. She shares personal updates including her recovery from a recent fall, exciting news about her first podcast interview appearance, and her early preparations for Halloween decorations. • Recovery update from last week's fall with painful but...

Send us Fan Mail Ever wonder what happens when you try to support someone through a cremation ceremony and end up sprawled across cemetery steps instead? Life has a way of mixing profound moments with unexpected comedy. Death remains one of our most challenging transitions – something many of us approach with hesitation, especially when supporting loved ones through the process. After losing my fr...

Send us Fan Mail Have you ever wondered what will happen to all your possessions when you're gone? After the recent loss of a friend, I found myself contemplating the mountain of stuff we accumulate throughout our lives and the burden it places on those left behind to sort through it all. In this week's personal exploration, I introduce the concept of "Swedish Death Cleaning" –...

Send us Fan Mail What if the secret to happiness isn't complicated at all, but simply requires us to choose joy daily? After losing someone who was like a second mother to me, I've been reflecting deeply on how we navigate life's challenges while still maintaining our sense of purpose and happiness. June has mysteriously become a month of pivotal moments in my life - when pets joine...

Send us Fan Mail Sometimes the bravest thing we can do is step back and breathe. After releasing episodes consistently for almost three full years, I found myself at a crossroads when Neliya – my late friend Gina's mother and someone who had become like a second mom to me – entered the hospital with sudden liver failure. The physical and emotional toll of hospital visits, coupled with the ord...