January 9, 2005 – the date is engraved in my bones. It’s the day my mom, Lorraine Castagnini, left this world at age fifty-six. I remember dropping the phone and crushing my ears with my hands trying to squeeze the news of her death out of my head. My mom was a lot more than […]

While still a young child, I knew the meaning of perseverance. My parents wanted the best for their child, and directed me towards skills and behaviors they believed would lead me to success. Their plan for my life was to obtain a college education, then join the work force in a secure job, with a dependable salary and good benefits…

And, it wasn’t comfortable. Even though I’d been in many rooms just like this one before. A birth condition requiring multiple surgeries with long, drawn out recoveries made hospitals, needles, tests and physicians a familiar environment. But, this time was different, very different. As I waited for the doctor to walk through the door of […]

The first time I felt a twinge in my tummy it was so slight I barely noticed it. I was busy greeting guests in a capacity filled room at the waterfront restaurant. The sun was just setting over the water, casting a warm orange glow throughout the mahogany floored lounge that overlooked the Marina. The […]

I was born premature but healthy, and my parents named me Faith. My growing up was basically normal, and then at the age of twenty, I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma cancer. The cancer came with a single message: Be real, be on the outside who I truly am on the inside. That’s why I […]

I woke up to the smell of hot butter on toast. I loved visiting Granny’s house. I was a curious child with blond hair and red cheeks. “If you ask why, one more time,” Granny used to say. She taught me how to read before I went to school. One day I discovered a beautiful […]

As I sifted through the piles of papers and notes I had collected over the years, each item brought up a different emotion. I got that lump in my throat and that heaviness in my heart – to say I was overcome with nostalgia would be an understatement. As I got deeper into the clutter, […]

“We can’t find anything wrong with you,” my gastrointestinal doctor said after hours of painful testing. “What do you mean there’s nothing wrong? There’s obviously SOMETHING wrong because I feel TERRIBLE!” “Well,” he continued, “I think you may have something called Irritable Bowel Syndrome. We don’t know much about it and we don’t really know […]

I was in my usual mind fog. There was a time when secretly in my head, I’d hum and chant and repeat the same phrases until I’d feel like my brain was in a knot that kept getting tighter and tighter. Outside my head, in the world of time and matter, I was said to […]

Thank Jesus I’m blind . . . In 1994 at age two I lost my eyes to a childhood disease called retinoblastoma—which is cancer in both eyes. At age three I taught myself echolocation—where I use sound to see. I ride bikes, skate, and play video games—you name it. I do it—or at least give […]

“Be strong.” She said. My mother’s words pierced every cell of my body that morning and they have continued to resonate with me to this day. Her tone was strong and yet somehow it still relayed the underlying heartbreak of what she was about to tell me. I knew in that moment of quick introspect, […]

Around the age of eight or nine, I clearly remember learning two lessons in Sunday school that would direct the course of my life. Firstly, Jesus taught that we are all brothers and sisters; and secondly, because of that we should love each other. Though I credit and thank my Catholic catechism classes for these […]

How connecting with my father’s spirit helped me regain my own. I had a thriving business, a loving family, and was financially secure. Yet, I felt a sense of emptiness… a sense I was meant to do more with my life. My life was nice and comfortable, but I realized it had lost its spark, […]

One of the greatest gifts that I have ever been given, is the ability to bare my soul in front of people. My life experiences, with the passage of time, have become quite humorous. As a matter of fact, the greater the ‘humiliation’ the more humor it brings today when I share it in front […]

One day, a single heart-wrenching event abruptly ended my very successful life as I had known it. In one shattering split-second, I turned from being a national sports celebrity, to fighting for my survival–and it literally became a fight for my life…

Several years back, if someone told me I would be making such a statement as “Thank God I was raped,” I would have considered them cruel and crazy. So, I’m aware of how disturbing this may be for some people to hear or understand. I didn’t wake up one day and ding! – suddenly find […]

There were several occasions after Jenny, my daughter, committed suicide where I contemplated killing myself. It was on the eve of the second anniversary of her death that I succumbed to a very dark moment in my life. I had traveled to the UK with the intent to set up a light base there, from […]

I adjust my mic pack, smooth out my dress, then stroll through the drafty hallway toward the set. Two minutes left before lights…camera… action! “Lucy… you have some ‘splaining’ to do,” one producer yells out to the tech hand nearest me. It’s always hectic during the final moments before going live. I turn to face […]