Joan Oliver

Someone is always trying to tell us how we’re supposed to achieve whatever look is trending.

Holiday Grinches lurk, waiting for unsuspecting holiday shoppers. Here are a few tips to help you avoid being a target this season.

Caregiving for someone with dementia comes with a lot of lessons. Sometimes the things learned come from emotional or mental challenges. However, a few are more of the physical variety. To say they are hard lessons learned would be an understatement.

With all the talk about counting our blessings this week, it might be easy to dismiss this as another greeting-card, feel-good exercise in futility. However, real gratitude can make a difference in how we deal with our most challenging situations.

Finding resources can be one of the hardest things for a family caregiver, particularly if one's loved one has dementia. A new program, as well as a new database, offers some guidance.

Want to spread some positivity into the world? World Kindness Day is a good way to start. If you need some ideas about where to begin, you've come to the right place.

Did you need the extra hour of sleep that came with the clocks falling back to standard time? If you did, you weren't alone. For the Oliver family, that hour to sleep couldn't have come at a better time.

Art imitates life, or so the saying goes. Sometimes life can seem to fall into a series of movie genres. For the Oliver family, it certainly seems that way as they celebrate their wedding anniversary.

Getting some time off is essential for a caregiver. Unfortunately, that's never easy. An outing for this year's Autumn Drive, however, did the trick for one frazzled caregiver.

No one likes to fall victim to scammers. Unfortunately, it's an all-too-common occurrence these days. What can we do to prevent becoming some crook's next victim? These tips in honor of Cybersecurity Awareness Month can help.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which might be apparent from all the pink. Despite a decrease in the number of breast cancer deaths, 1 in 8 women still will be diagnosed with breast cancer during their lifetime. That's why early detection is so important.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Here in Illinois, the number of deaths from domestic violence increased during 2023. So there's work to do. Turning Point will host its annual Candlelight Vigil on Oct. 3 on the Woodstock Square.

Patience is rare these days, but it can be developed. It's also a critical necessity for those of us who are caregivers for people living with dementia. Still, each new phase of the disease requires a different level of patience.

College students these days face far more challenges than they did in the past. Among them is the need to protect themselves from all sorts of scammers who target them for their financial inexperience. Here are some tips to keep them safe.

Chicago Sky forward Angel Reese's season may be over, but fans of the team can't help but be proud of all that the Louisiana State University graduate has been able to accomplish in such a short time.

September is National Preparedness Month. This year's theme is "Start a Conversation." Here are a few tips so that families can be prepared for anything.

How does Alzheimer's disease progress? As the Oliver family wraps up its ninth year after Tony's diagnosis with early onset dementia, it's apparent that the years have brought constant adjustments.

When a family faces an Alzheimer's disease diagnosis, everything changes. What if there was a program that offered guidance to families about where they could find resources and to create a plan? There is now through a partnership between the Alzheimer's Association and Rippl.

As the school year looms for area students, now is the time for all of us to prepare kids to be able to handle potential bullying. Equipping them to prevent it from happening is as essential as making sure they have new No. 2 pencils.

The breast cancer journey that began in February comes to an "end" of sort. The completion of radiation treatments marks the beginning of the five-year waiting period to be declared cancer-free.

The Summer Olympics offer so many sporting options that it's hard for even a rabid fan to see everything. However, it sure will be fun to watch sports that rarely get any coverage during the rest of the year.

The death of actress Shannen Doherty was a blow to her many fans. It also was difficult for those of us who are battling the same disease that she was: breast cancer.

What can employers do when an employee starts exhibiting signs of dementia? The Alzheimer's Association and Bank of America have released a new white paper that offers some tips for both employers and employees.

Goodbyes can be hard even when one is saying goodbye to a beloved television series. The recent finale of "The Incredible Dr. Pol," a favorite for more than a decade, was like that for the Olivers.

Every year, a pet meets with an unfortunate injury or worse because it became scared during Fourth of July fireworks. The loud noises often trigger pets' fight-or-flight response. Here are a few tips to keep pets safe.

Going through radiation treatments for breast cancer for a second time feels like déjà vu.

The continued controversy surrounding the treatment of the WNBA's top draft pick this year, Caitlin Clark, paints the rest of the league's players as jealous villains. Yet, physical play has always been a hallmark of the W.

During Alzheimer's & Brain Health Awareness Month, the Alzheimer's Association is offering five tips you can use to take charge of your brain health.

Trying to buy flowers from a garden center doesn't sound like a difficult task. However, when the targeted flower is nasturtium and one's husband has Alzheimer's disease, the mission can be downright herculean.

Summer days during childhood were often limited only by imagination. Fun could be found almost anywhere. Maybe it's time to tap into that wonder again.

For a lot of us, our natural inclination is to tell people that "everything is going to be OK." Although we hope that's the case, sometimes it's better to just listen and acknowledge that it's OK not to be OK.

Recent crazy weather, including a tornado in Harvard, had Team Oliver scrambling for the basement. It also was a good reminder to review what to do in the event of emergencies.

New guidelines for when women of average risk should begin getting mammograms aim to make it easier to know what to do. However, those recommendations can't save lives if women don't follow them.

In the classic movie "Gaslight," a husband with questionable motives tries to make his wife believe that she's going crazy. Sometimes being a caregiver for someone with Alzheimer's disease can feel like that, except that no one is doing any of it on purpose.

Sometimes it seems that our longtime friends will be with us forever. But life is fragile and sometimes the unthinkable happens, reminding us how important it is to hold our friends and loved ones close.

Teamwork can be the difference between success and failure in many facets of life. That's true especially when one is dealing with a cancer diagnosis.

During tax season, anxiety is high for a lot of us. After all, there are a lot of details to keep track of. The Internal Revenue Services wants taxpayers to know that they need to be on the lookout for something else: phishing and smishing scams.

Family caregivers often think they have to go it alone. However, circumstances sometimes can force them into getting some needed help. That's the situation the Olivers recently found themselves in.

The Alzheimer's Association releases its "Facts and Figures" report each year. This year, the focus is on the need for better coordination of care for those with Alzheimer's disease and for their caregivers.

Ever hear of "loud budgeting"? It's a trend that started on TikTok that even financial experts can get behind.

Dealing with loss can be one of life's most challenging situations. A Japanese pottery technique offers a creative way to think about turning those losses into something beautiful, making them easier to bear.

Life can be like a movie written by a sadistic screenwriter. That assessment from five years ago still holds true. However, here's hoping this breast cancer battle sequel is less dramatic.

The news of the closure of Spring Hill Mall in West Dundee brings a flood of memories for those of us who grew up in and around malls in the 1970s and 1980s.

After four years of breast cancer treatment, the last thing anyone wants to hear is that something suspicious was found in a yearly mammogram. Still, worrying in the days before another biopsy won't change the outcome.

The 1987 classic film "The Princess Bride" has a lot to say about the nature of true love. It also played a role in at least one real-life love story.

Football purists who have a problem with pop superstar Taylor Swift attending Kansas City Chiefs games are missing the bigger picture: Drawing more fans to the sport is a good thing, particularly if they are young girls and women.

So how did you do during Get Organized Month? What? You didn’t know this was a thing. It is and now is a good time to start decluttering.

For a lot of us, there's a disconnect between statistics about cancer and the people behind the numbers ... until we become one of those statistics.

Being the caregiver for a person with Alzheimer's disease who no longer speaks requires one part Sherlock Holmes and another part hypothesis-testing scientist. That's especially true when one's charge is less than happy.

When we're planning our annual exams this year, the Alzheimer's Association would like us to remember to "get a check-up from the neck up" too, even if we're not experiencing any memory problems.