S8E4: “What We Hold for Those Who Can’t”

In this moving episode of the Root & Seed Podcast, host Anika Chabra speaks with Dr. Caron Leid, caregiver, educator, author, and accidental activist whose life was reshaped by two decades of caregiving. Caron shares how her experiences supporting her mother through Alzheimer’s, navigating grief, and rebuilding her life as a single parent shaped her professional path and PhD research on sandwich-generation caregiving. She reflects on her childhood across England, Trinidad, and Canada, where early exposure to intergenerational care and cultural traditions laid the foundation for her deep empathy today. Throughout the conversation, Caron reveals what it truly means to hold space for someone, especially when they can no longer hold their own memories. She describes caregiving as an active, dignifying practice of witnessing a person’s life and becoming the container for both who they were and who they are becoming. With her signature honesty and straight talk, she dismantles the myth of the caregiving martyr and reminds listeners that the emotional load must be shared. Caron offers practical, grounded advice for caregivers: acknowledge hard days, allow all emotions, and release the pressure to find constant joy in a deeply complex role. Her insights highlight the sacred responsibility of “holding” another’s story with compassion, presence, and integrity. This conversation reframes caregiving not only as labour, but as a profoundly human act of memory-keeping and connection. Listeners will come away with renewed appreciation for the moments, big or small, that bind families across generations.

About our guest:

Dr. Caron Leid is a counsellor, educator and author whose work is rooted in more than twenty years of firsthand caregiving. She often describes herself as a caregiver by chance, an advocate by fire, and a therapist and educator by choice, because her professional path grew directly from supporting her mother through the entire Alzheimer’s trajectory. That lived experience shaped her PhD research on sandwich-generation caregiving, published through Aspen University and archived on ProQuest.

Caron’s counselling practice in Ontario focuses on trauma-informed, schema-based work with caregivers, individuals, couples and court-involved families. She brings a long background in education to her clinical work.

Her advocacy spans national and academic networks. She serves on  Age-Well's Older Adult and Caregiver committee as the Co -Chair and contributes to McMaster University’s PERC Patient Engagement group, where she ensures caregiver realities and cultural context influence research, innovation and policy. Her work has been featured on CTV National News, and her podcast, Caron Talks, provides caregivers with grounded guidance that blends research, lived experience and emotional clarity.

Caron has spoken across Canada, France and the United States, and will be presenting in the Caribbean on dementia, grief, generational caregiving and the emotional patterns families carry. She has written several books, including Alzheimer’s: What They Forget to Tell You, Dementia & The Brain: What They Forget to Tell You, her grief-centred work Grief: What They Forget to Tell You, Self-Love: What They Forget to Tell You, the Sinkhole Survival Guide series for teens and adults, and BS and Other Childhood Tales We Learned. She has also authored several published medical journal articles.  

She is currently building a comprehensive caregiver education ecosystem, Her approach remains consistent across all platforms: to give families and caregivers practical tools, honest language and support that honours the weight of what they carry.