The Only Child Diaries Podcast
Not just for only children! Info, stories and life experiences for anyone who feels like they didn't get the How-To brochure on life! Host Tracy Wallace, who has been a business owner, a successful fundraiser, a stand-up comedian, a caregiver and an animal lover, shares stories from the front lines of adulting to help others in this journey called life. She does this while finding the humor in the all situations.
Episodes
Some weeks feel like a collage: a cough that won’t totally quit, a cat who ignores dinner when the heat rises, a dog who thinks every block is a parade, and a lawn that finally answers back with the thinnest line of green. This conversation sits right in that mix—COVID recovery that’s mostly there but not quite, and the tender work of reclaiming energy, taste, and laughter one small step at a time.
We get can...
The Covid cough won’t let me laugh yet, and somehow chocolate lost its spell. What in the hell happened to me??? That’s where this story starts: a real-time look at COVID recovery that trades drama for honesty. I talk through the positive test, the decision to get to urgent care quickly, and how Paxlovid likely kept things from getting scary. Then we get into the long haul—chest congestion, a thin appetite, and the st...
A scratchy throat, a stubborn cough, and a little denial—then a swab that changed the story. We open up about the week with a confirmed COVID case, the scramble to start Paxlovid, and the practical steps that made each day a little easier. From hydration habits and cough management to why gentle movement beats bed-bound stillness, this is a grounded walkthrough of what recovery really looks like when life refuses to q...
Rain soaked Los Angeles, the Rose Parade turned soggy, and my holiday lights kept tripping like they were on a timer from the weather gods—so I used the mess as a nudge to start fresh. I share how a wet week, a sick spouse, and a very determined 14-pound chihuahua pushed me to restart my daily walks, rethink my habits, and listen to what my body and data keep telling me.
We get practical about movement with c...
A holiday decorating contest turned into a masterclass in rolling with the weather. The atmospheric river drenched our front yard display, shorted the circuits, and left our ten-foot Yeti with gravity-defying soggy fur. We didn’t take home the win, but we did find something better: perspective, humor, and a reminder that the brightest moments often come after plans go sideways.
From the driveway, the season t...
Holiday cheer meets home reality as a Southern California storm rolls in and puts a target on outdoor lights, inflatables, and carefully planned yard magic. I talk through the tradeoffs of beauty and safety—what happens when circuits shut down, mud takes over, and the sky ignores your calendar. There’s relief that it’s rain and not wildfire winds this year, plus a real wish that weather would wait until the decoration...
Joy doesn’t always arrive in a big moment; sometimes it shows up in a box that claims “25 minutes” and actually takes four hours, a friendly text from a great PT, or a yard that glows just enough to make strangers slow their cars. We set out to simplify holiday decorating after two hospital stays shifted our bandwidth, and we found a sweet spot between ambition and energy. With a giant Bumble from the 1964 Rudolph cla...
Caregiving rarely looks like the neat checklist people promise. We open the door on a week of small wins and stubborn setbacks: a partner recovering from bulging discs, the push to trade bed rest for hallway laps, and the work of finding motivation when every step aches. The house hums with real life—pets reacting to disrupted routines, a cat throwing up from stress, a dog glued to our sides—and we talk about how self...
Caregiving isn’t a tidy checklist; it’s a constant recalibration of energy, emotion, and logistics. In this episode, I'm talking about life after back-to-back hospital stays and what it takes to keep a home running when helpers still need help, the dog thinks every visitor is a threat, and the cat needs a calming plan to handle the foot traffic. That swirl forces hard choices, and I get candid about the small mom...
Dry turkey on one side of the family, rum-soaked pudding on the other—somehow neither tasted like home. This week it's a re-release of my favorite funny Thanksgiving episode, and I'm pulling you into a holiday world where salt was outlawed, bay leaves did all the heavy lifting, and stuffing came from a box you didn’t want seconds of. It’s funny because it’s true, and it’s tender because it’s about more than ...
Twelve days in the hospital can blur into a single, sleepless memory. After an ER stretch that felt endless, we finally brought my husband home—but not before the big question families everywhere wrestle with: skilled nursing facility or recovery at home.
I share a past experience guiding my thinking: my dad’s fall, a stint in rehab, and an underwhelming version of “more PT” that didn’t translate into real p...
The healthcare system doesn’t hand out a manual or a how-to brochure for that matter about how to deal with health issues. After a hospital discharged us with no pain meds and no clear plan because we declined surgery, we faced a stark choice: wait and watch strength fade, or push for access to a team that could actually help. In this episode, I walk you through the messy middle—how we navigated private medical transp...
This week's episode is abbreviated to say the least with my husband's health issues taking center stage! Short updates on things going on. Did you listen to last week's interview by the way?
If this resonates, follow the Only Child Diaries Podcast on your favorite app, leave a rating and review to help others find us, and share the show with a friend who needs a thoughtful voice in their feed. Join u...
What if the quiet of an only-child home becomes the engine for a louder, fuller life? Tracy sits down with Leslie Berlin to trace that arc—from a childhood shaped by early divorce and Sunday dinners with dad to a grown-up world built on cousins, neighbors, and in-laws who feel like true family. Leslie’s warmth and candor turn familiar worries into practical wisdom: how to learn confrontation without sibling sparring m...
What do you hold onto when the week unravels—when a hospital discharge turns into a maze of home care, a storm flattens your Halloween decorations, and the cat needs an ER visit at 1 a.m.? I walk through a stretch of days where everything asked for attention at once and explain how I kept moving by choosing a glass half-full approach.
We start with my husband’s recovery plan: two bulging discs, a broken rib...
A cascade of pain, four falls, and a fractured rib turned a quiet week into a high-stakes navigation of hospital systems, protocols, and hard choices. We walk you through the unvarnished reality of being a caregiver when the lights of the ambulance meet the glow of Halloween decorations, the dog won’t stop barking, and the chart misses the most important details. From the ER intake to a five-day stay that demanded con...
The week started with hope—physical therapy was finally helping my husband to build strength and balance—then it swerved into a nerve flare that turned my husband into a bedridden dependent partner that made me worry and exhausted at the same time. Caregiving isn’t glamorous; it’s small adjustments repeated with patience: finding a position that eases pain, measuring the day by steps, and choosing what gets dropped wh...
Have you ever broken a promise to yourself for something that unexpectedly connected you to someone you've lost? That's exactly what happened when I subscribed to The New York Times after vowing never to accumulate publications again.
When we moved from our apartment a few years ago, we discovered mountains of magazines and newspaper clippings tucked away in closets and corners—evidence of my fundra...
Have you ever had a revelation when someone you've known for years suddenly reveals themselves to be completely different from who you thought they were? Maybe you suddenly started spending a LOT of time with them and finally got to really KNOW them? That somewhat jarring disconnect between perception and reality forms the heart of this episode's exploration into the complicated layers of our closest relati...
The choice to drive drunk can destroy lives in an instant. On September 7, 2017, my husband Bill and I were enjoying a vacation in Las Vegas when a drunk driver slammed into our rental car at approximately 80 miles per hour. The impact was so violent that I genuinely believed I wouldn't survive. Our world transformed in that moment—from carefree vacation to a 20-month nightmare of physical recovery, emotional tra...
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