Peter Rosenberger is the host of a national radio show, HOPE FOR THE CAREGIVER, a widely-published writer, a songwriter, and a good friend. He is also the author of the new book, A Minute for Caregivers: When Everyday Feels Like Monday (Fidelis Publishing, May 2023).

I became acquainted with Peter through his radio show, which at that time was based in Nashville. I later had the opportunity to meet him and his wife, Gracie, who sustained life-threatening injuries in a car accident more than thirty years ago that would eventually make her a double amputee.

Together, Peter and Gracie have raised two sons, established and facilitated a non-profit that distributes prosthetic limbs to the needy in West Africa, and performed for elite audiences, including a president. Peter and Gracie are both talented musicians. She is a gifted vocalist, and he is an accomplished pianist.

Beyond—and far above—everything else, Peter and Gracie continue to share their testimony through all of life’s trials and triumphs, to Jesus Christ, Who sustains them. I’m delighted to host Peter at Divine Detour this week.

 

If someone asked you to describe yourself with one word, what word would that be? 

Focused.

Caregiving is a 24-7 job. How do you make time to write books as well as host a radio show? Do you carve out a certain time of day to write? 

I write in my head while doing my chores, errands, and tasks. Then, I carve out an hour or so to download what I thought about. My commentaries and op-eds are usually 650-700 words. That’s about all the time I have to write at a pop and put out quality. Even my books have short chapters. I use voice to text to make notes on my phone about a topic I’d like to write about. Early mornings are usually the time when I can write – and rarely, if at all, do I write in the late afternoon.

Let’s talk about your new book, A Minute for Caregivers: When Everyday Feels Like Monday. Please tell us about it.

Most caregivers don’t have the energy or time to read a “manual” or “how-to” book. It’s hard to read for pleasure as well. I love to read, but the crisis du jour often hampers my reading.

But most of us can sit down for a few minutes. The chapters can literally be read in one minute (I timed them). They are not sequential, so readers can go to any page and find something on that page to help in THAT moment. Readers can start with the conclusion, flip to the beginning – whatever works at that point in time.

I speak fluent caregiver. Every chapter – every sentence – will make sense to my fellow caregivers. Each page offers hard-won insights gleaned over a lifetime and those insights pierce through the clutter and noise to fellow caregivers’ hearts. Some will make you laugh; some will make you cry – but all will point caregivers to safety.

Pick a number between 1 & 240 and turn to the page corresponding to that number. Something on that page will help immediately. I just tested it on myself while answering your questions and picked “32.” It worked.

Col. Oliver North wrote the Foreword. How did that come about?

The agent I hired tried unsuccessfully for a year to get a book deal with this project. I chose to end the contract with my agent and go off on my own.

I found the publisher (Fidelis) through LinkedIn and sent an inquiry to the COO, Gary Terashita. With a long list of rejections, my expectations were low.

Surprisingly, Gary wrote back and said he was interested. After receiving the manuscript he expressed a desire to go the next step – but the CEO had to sign off.

The CEO is Oliver North. Currently in the throes of caregiving, Col. North immediately connected with this book and not only wanted to publish it, but asked if he could write the Foreword.

Fidelis had never published anything like this but had the topic of caregiving on their radar. It has been an extraordinary partnership that God put together.  I can confidently state that my encounter with them was a Divine Detour.

Your radio show, podcast, and books are an inspiration to others. What inspires you?

Years ago, I talked to a woman caring for her husband with quadriplegia. The family (on both sides) failed to help and left her to fend for herself. Struggling to make ends meet while affording 24-7 care, she made a brutal choice; she divorced her husband so that she could get paid by the state as his caregiver.

With defiant dignity, she said to me, “I bathe him, feed him, dress him, and sleep beside him every night.”

Her non-helping family criticized her decision to divorce him – yet didn’t lift a finger.

With her heart in her throat, she asked me, “Did I do wrong?”

Taking a deep breath, I responded with conviction encased in compassion: “You broke the contract … but kept the covenant of marriage. You’re doing the extraordinary in an impossible situation – be at peace.”

I also added that she might want to tell her family to step off.

She inspires me.

My aunt, Diane, took care of my mother’s brother for years while I was a teenager. I see her face everywhere. Her daughter (my cousin) takes care of her special needs child. My brother and his wife care for their daughter (34) who is non-verbal, non-ambulatory, and cognitively impaired.

My friends, Frank and Joyce took care of their son with hemophilia many years ago. He, along with every hemophiliac in my home state of South Carolina, contracted HIV in the 1980’s. Gracie sang, and I played the piano. at their son’s funeral.

I see all of their faces in every podcast, broadcast, interview, column, and book.  The inspiration I draw from them and more serves to harden my resolve to speak with clarity and conviction to my fellow caregivers – and to respect their brutal challenges. 

It has been ten years since you wrote your first book on caregiving. Has any of your basic philosophy changed since that time?

My clarity has increased, but the guiding principle remains “Healthy Caregivers Make Better Caregivers.” Years ago, I started off offering more “Tips” but quickly grew bored with that. A five-minute Google search can provide caregiving tips for most of the caregiving tasks we do. My focus continues to remain on the trainwreck in a caregiver’s heart. If our hearts, minds, bodies, and wallets are dumpster fires – can you imagine what our caregiving looks like?

It’s important to know how to do caregiving tasks – but that knowledge becomes meaningless if the caregiver is incapacitated with fear, grief, guilt, resentment, or despair. My philosophy and approach? I suppose all of this represents my efforts to speak to the 22-year-old version of myself – who fell in love with a woman with a broken body. I daily strive to say and write things that would make sense to that young man.

  • Directing to safety
  • Helping ‘get back on the horse’ when mistakes are made.
  • Pointing to the inexhaustible love of God that transcends our easily depleted efforts.

Thanks, Peter! It’s great to have you back at Divine Detour.

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For more information about Peter, visit his website and follow him on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

To order A Minute for Caregivers When Everyday Feels Like Monday, go to –