Heather McHugh - Expansive Living Hall of Fame

Yes, Heather McHugh is a 2009 MacArthur fellow, but she is SO much more than a massively gifted poet.  She is one heck of a human being!  Faced with the $500,000 grant that comes with being named a fellow & realizing how stressed out caregivers of the severely disabled get, she started Caregifted, a nonprofit that awards vacations to folks who've put in a decade or more giving full-time care to a family member.

She became alerted to the need for a serious break when her godson had a baby with severe disabilities, a daughter who will never walk, talk or be able to feed herself.  The enormity of it all inspired her to DO something.  Thanks to the MacArthur Foundation - and the fact the money is given without any strings, to be used however the fellow wishes - she made it happen.

“I can see how hard some lives are and how much they deserve tribute,” McHugh said. “They do it for their families, they do it out of love, but what they do benefits everybody and nobody’s thinking about it. Nobody’s waving thank you at them.


“They ask for the simplest things on vacation,” she said. “They want to go for a walk when they want to. They want to read a book.”

May we all come close to living & giving as expansively as Heather McHugh, MacArthur Fellow & Expansive Living Hall of Famer!