Lightning Strikes Twice

In this brutally honest portrait of what it’s like to be a caregiver, Toronto writer Sonya K. Singh bravely serves up her own experience as a lifeline to others. Anyone who has felt the seismic changes brought on by full-time caregiving will recognize themselves in these pages.

When both of her parents suddenly became unable to care for themselves in 2017, Singh felt she had no choice but to quit her job and move back to Guelph, Ontario, to become their full-time caregiver.

Suddenly caught up in a whirlwind of doctors’ visits, prescription pickups, cooking, cleaning, feeding, and dressing both parents, Singh turned to writing as an outlet for the shock and frustration of each long day in her new role, scratching out these short, urgent poems late at night while her parents slept.

A candid poetic memoir of what it’s like to lose your independence and your paycheque while watching yourself become an orphan in slow motion, this book, which is also anchored by a moving essay about the author’s family life, speaks to and for the estimated eight million adult children who have found themselves caught between their lives and careers and the needs of aging and ill parents.