The weeping woman sat front-row center, cheek pressed against her husband’s lapel. She had come to hear my story of “overcoming depression,” as I said in those days. When I got to the part about sobbing on the kitchen floor
August 21 was my day. No, not my birthday–I’ll be 73 for another two months. The day I share with the rest of us who had the good fortune not to die young and now have our very own place
I’m an author and keynote speaker who found happiness at 65—a story I tell in my new memoir Starter Dog: My Path to Joy, Belonging and Loving This World. In a former life as Editor of Chatelaine, Canada’s premier magazine, I disclosed my struggle with depression and helped kickstart a national conversation about mental health. I’ve been married more than 50 years and am a firm believer that road trips go better with a dog in the back seat. I’ve learned plenty about staying well from people with diplomas on their walls but my best mental health coach is a rescue dog named Casey.