All Home Care Matters was honored to welcome a good friend, board member, and founder of The Whole Care Network, Christopher MacLellan. However, you may know Christopher as the "Bow Tie Guy".

When people ask him "why did you create the Whole Care Network"... he always come back to his caregiving experience and how fortunate he was to find resources that helped him and his partner Richard Schiffer manage their caregiving journey. Every caregiver has a story and through their stories, they find validation, resources and respite to help manage their caregiving day.

Christopher feels fortunate to have had their story chronicled in a 2015 Pulitzer Prize-nominated 3-part story “In Sickness and In Health: A Couple’s Final Journey” which told their journey of caregiving. The story told of the challenges LGBT partners have in dealing with the medical and legal system, but it also told of the love and joy of his partner Richard's last years had on their relationship.

Their story has been read by over 500,000 people worldwide since it was published in April of 2014. One of the reasons their story was so successful was because readers could place themselves in their shoes; dealing with the healthcare system, the legal system, balancing work and life, while facing the reality their time together was short. It was an afterthought that the story just happened to be about two men.

When it comes to caregiving, there are no economic boundaries, no racial boundaries, no gender boundaries and no orientation boundaries. Caregiving impacts everyone, and it is through story sharing where diversity meets the road to collaborate on a common cause. And our common cause is to support caregivers before, during and after caregiving has ended.