By janet@divatoolbox.com
Created 2011-06-10 13:40
After 40 years as a piano teacher, Lois Hjelmstad became a writer.
Lois Hjelmstad is not an ordinary woman. At 80+ years old, she is extraordinary! After more than 40 years as a piano teacher, Lois reinvented her life after breast cancer as a writer. She wanted to share her life experiences, both the good ones and the challenging ones, with women from across the globe hoping in some small way to make their journey a little easier.When Lois Hjelmstad presents "Cancer—A Catalyst for Change," audiences are moved. Sometimes they laugh; sometimes they cry; sometimes they cheer. A social worker at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston said, "It was the honesty that had such an impact. She was able to put all the feelings into words—so many words of wisdom in such compact space."
Hjelmstad has given over 550 presentations in 50 states, England, and Canada, challenging her audiences to learn to take risks, encouraging them to hang in there. She knows whereof she speaks.
In 1990, Hjelmstad had the first of two mastectomies. As she coped with fear of recurrence and changing priorities, she wrote Fine Black Lines: Reflections on Facing Cancer, Fear and Loneliness. A grandmother and a piano teacher, she dared to appear nude from the waist up in Colorado Woman News, a Denver magazine, to raise consciousness for National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Fine Black Lines has won awards in both the United States and England. The book has sold more than 18,000 copies so far and helped many women cope with the medical and emotional challenges of breast cancer.
Lois Hjelmstad has been developing her skills in communication, her insights, and her ability to articulate deep feelings throughout her life. She taught as many as 65 music students a week in her private music studio, while she and her husband raised their four children in Englewood, Colorado. In 1978, she presented a workshop on Creativity Is a Way of Teaching at the Colorado State Music Teachers Association's Convention and subsequently gave that workshop to many local music teacher associations.
In its wide acceptance, Fine Black Lines provided impetus to expand Hjelmstad's speaking career. Since 1994, she has traveled over 400,000 miles, talking to patients, professionals, cancer support groups, women's groups, book clubs, and college students. She has given keynote addresses, provided in-services (Continuing Education Units and Continuing Medical Education), held workshops, spoken at physicians' conferences (as well as Grand Rounds and Tumor Boards), and read poetry.
Hjelmstad was featured in the October 2001 issue of Rosie magazine and interviewed by Rosie O'Donnell on her show.
Hjelmstad's articles on breast cancer have been published in American Medical News, Administrative Radiology Journal, Health Progress Magazine, Your Health, and PARENTGUIDE, among others. She was featured in a documentary produced by Fred Silverman, Living with Cancer: A Message of Hope, which has been widely distributed on nationwide PBS. She has appeared in several other documentaries as well.
As her mother lay dying in home hospice care, Hjelmstad again began journeling and expressing her thoughts in poetry. In the years since her mother's death, she continued to reflect on her mother's life, their relationship, and the experience of grief.
With the 2002 publication of The Last Violet: Mourning My Mother, Hjelmstad further addressed the issues of loss and relationships with others, including hospice and bereavements groups.
Throughout all of this, her marriage to Les has strengthened and upheld her. On their 50th wedding anniversary she gave him a packet of poems and promised to write the story of their love. In April 2010, This Path We Share: Reflecting on 60 Years of Marriage was released.
Lois hopes this book will help couples from the about-to-be-marrieds and young marrieds to those struggling to hang on to what they once had and those looking to affirm their long happy relationships.
In addition to teaching, writing, and speaking, Lois loves walking, traveling, entertaining family and friends, being involved with children, and thinking about the larger questions of life.
In addition to teaching, writing, and speaking, Lois loves walking, traveling, entertaining family and friends, being involved with children, and thinking about the larger questions of life.
Her mission is to validate, encourage, and inspire others in any way she can.
You can learn more about Diva Toolbox [3]contributor, Lois Hjelmstad on her website at www.mulberrypress.com [4].
Links:
[1] http://www.more.com/user/profile/126546
[2] http://www.more.com/how-cancer-became-a-catalyst-for-reinvention
[3] http://www.divatoolbox.com
[4] http://www.mulberryhillpress.com/index.htm
[1] http://www.more.com/user/profile/126546
[2] http://www.more.com/how-cancer-became-a-catalyst-for-reinvention
[3] http://www.divatoolbox.com
[4] http://www.mulberryhillpress.com/index.htm
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