Recent Posts
Spending Time in Bernie’s Neighborhood
Bonjour, Just a quick blog today as we’re ready to depart to Normandy. First the train, then a rental car with Natalie as our chauffeur. Happy Memorial Day to everyone. Ours will be special and the weather looks very good—windy and a bit cool but better than stifling hot. Yesterday, the two “young people” slept […]
A Holiday Saturday at Montmartre
Bonjour, What better day could one have than to share a place you love with people you love! Yesterday was part of a holiday weekend in Paris. Pentecost Sunday is today in celebration of Christ’s ascension. And on Monday (our Memorial Day), we will be honored to celebrate by spending a day on the Normandy […]
Bienvenue à Paris, Natalie and Carson!
Bonjour, Thanks to so many of you for the kind support in regard to this damnable case of vertigo I have managed to get. About ten years ago, I had this for one solid year and truly thought I was going to lose my mind. I tried every remedy I could find but nothing helped […]
Bustling, Busy Champs Elysées
Bonjour, Glorious weather graced our day with hardly a cloud in the sky and 70 degrees as the high. I’d call that about perfect unless you have vertigo and then, darn, it’s not as much fun. Bless Bernie for always holding my hand and telling me that everything will get better. Maybe home is where […]
Books
Her first book entitled Leading Ladies published in 2003 offers practical leadership tips for women, encouraging them to embrace their femininity as a leadership asset.
In Catch Your Breath, Linda has written a raw, honest series of meditations for caregivers based on her experiences in caring for her own mother. These will evoke both laughter and tears as they offer insight and courage to those caught in the caregiving web.
In Bernie ‘s Paris…Travel Stories with Love, Linda describes with tender and often humorous clarity her eleven years visiting Paris with her best friend and lover, Bernard Verdier, a native Frenchman. From Southern belle to world traveler, she will delight you with her Parisian escapades, her love affair with “Bernie” and hopefully inspire you to fall in love with Paris as she has. Bernie’s photographs will ignite the urge to plan a Paris fling. The book is now available.
Now Available: Bernie’s Paris…Travel Stories with Love
This memoir captures an improbable journey between a love-starved, Southern belle and an over-eager, homesick Parisian. If you’ve ever been to Paris or have always dreamed of going, this is a must-read full of savvy tips, funny mistakes, compelling drama—all entangled in the tender love story of two people who had mostly given up on a late-in-life relationship. You will chuckle; you will sigh; you will remember; and maybe, you will call your travel agent!
Now Available from Balboa Press
Whether you have chosen to be a caregiver or were hijacked by circumstances, Catch Your Breath, a series of touching meditations by Linda Spalla, will become a wisp of sanity and a day-to-day stabilizer. Spalla retraces an eight month care-giving journey with her mother, captured in raw, candid images, truly becoming a walk in her shoes. What started as a thirty-days-to-live commitment of care in her home turned into an unexpected eight months of never-ending responsibility. You will feel a kinship with the roller coaster of emotions; from anger, confusion, surprise, resentment, guilt and ambivalence, to finally relief, recovery and celebration. You will learn through the various vignettes some refreshingly practical information on such topics as finding sitters, managing medicine, dealing with sibling rivalry, contracting with Hospice, moving to assisted living, doing will preparation and other legalities as well as funeral planning. You will laugh; you will sob; your heart will soar; your heart will break. You will find solace, encouragement and inspiration for one of life’s most daunting challenges. But especially, you will discover your best self, emerging stalwart, strong and forged by the fire of your caregiving experience. Give yourself a gift of renewal and Catch Your Breath.