- Struggles And Joys: QVC Hosts Share Experiences As Their Elderly Parents’ Caretakers. (InspireMore.com - November 15, 2023)
- Elizabeth Hubbard, As the World Turns' inimitable Lucinda Walsh, dead at 89 (Soap Central - April 11, 2023)
Struggles And Joys: QVC Hosts Share Experiences As Their Elderly Parents’ Caretakers. (inspiremore.com - November 15, 2023) In life, we go through countless different chapters. For adults with elderly parents, this can include having to take on the role of caretaker. Anyone who has ever been in this position understands how challenging this responsibility can be, especially when you’re still taking care of little ones of your own. It can feel isolating, but it’s important to remember that you aren’t alone.
InspireMore spoke with QVC hosts Terri Conn and Shawn Killinger, who understand firsthand what it’s like to have so much on your plate. Their stories serve as reminders that while this time of life is difficult and overwhelming, there is also joy.
We can never really know where our lives will take us. Before Terri Conn became a QVC host, she was an actor. For most of her career, she starred in soap operas, earning her a nomination for a Daytime Emmy. These roles allowed her to have a more typical 9-to-5 job that many actors don’t get.
But when she didn’t have any work and was pregnant with one of her kids, she knew she needed to make a change. At first, she turned to real estate, something her mom was able to help with because of her own experience in the industry.
Terry still auditioned for acting roles, but that changed, too, when the opportunity arose for her to work for QVC. The transition from being an actor with lines to going live in front of millions was a bit of a hurdle, but it’s one that she has not only overcome but grown to love. Best of all, it’s given her the opportunity to better connect and help her family.
As an only child, Terri has always been close with her parents. So when her dad was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2019, she jumped at the chance to go to Scotland with them. Her dad had traveled there once before, but this time, he wanted them to all go together.
“We had this amazing, dream vacation and now, five years later, I realized that it really was the last time that he would have been able to travel because it has gone downhill so much since then,” Terri told InspireMore.
Not long after this vacation, Terri insisted that her parents move into their Pennsylvania home. Although Mom was hesitant, in part because of the colder weather, Terri was able to win her over — and both of them couldn’t be happier about that.
“Almost daily, my mom and I look at each other and we say, ‘I’m so glad we did this,'” Terri said.
Being totally transparent, Terri shared that it’s not easy to balance work, kids, parents, and everything else in her life — in fact, she says she is “still learning that I’m not actually very good at it.” Still, in the year since her parents moved in, she’s finding that life is better when you have a community you can count on.
“I’ve really leaned on my husband, mom, and even the girls a lot,” Terri said. “I guess what I’ve learned is how to lean on others and make it a village instead of being the ultimate multitasker because none of us are built that way.”
That’s why, when it comes to giving advice to others in similar situations, she emphasizes the importance of not taking on all of the work yourself.
“Get comfortable leaning on others and break up the work as evenly as you can because we all have different types of responsibilities,” Terri said. “And I think, especially in this country, we view multitasking as this great virtue … and I think we need to pull back a little bit from that because multitasking is a lie. I learned that in real estate, you can’t do everything equally good at the same time — something’s going to suffer, so if you don’t ask for help or learn to say no, it’s going to catch up to you in the end.”
Elizabeth Hubbard, As the World Turns' inimitable Lucinda Walsh, dead at 89 (Soap Central - April 11, 2023) As the World Turns star Elizabeth Hubbard has died. News of the actress' death was announced on her son's Facebook page. The actress died of cancer in new Connecticut home on Saturday at the age of 89.
"I'm sorry to say with a broken heart my mum passed over the weekend," Hubbard's son Jeremy Bennett wrote. "Thank you for being an unmovable rock that guided me through life. I will try to honour your memory for as long as I live."
Other As the World Turn alum also shared their thoughts on Hubbard's passing.
Terri Conn (ex-Katie Peretti): "[She] always fought hard for the truth of her character and the integrity of the story and I was always inspired by that.... She was a force and will be greatly missed!"
