ABOUT ELAINE
A Lifetime of Living
Author | Speaker | Coach
The Season That Changed Everything
In October of 2025, on what began as an entirely ordinary evening, a fall changed the shape of my life in an instant, leaving me with a catastrophic injury and a ten-hour surgery to save my leg. What I thought would be just a broken leg turned into months of surgeries and setbacks, and the strange, humbling experience of learning to live in a body I no longer quite recognized.
I had spent most of my life being the one who shows up for other people, so becoming the person who needed to be cared for was, honestly, one of the hardest adjustments I have ever had to make. But somewhere in that long recovery, I came to understand that healing was never only physical. It was emotional and mental and deeply personal. I began to see it all as the messy middle, not simply the stretch of time between where you start and where you land, but the very place where the real growth happens.
That season did not stop what I had already set out to do. If anything, it deepened it, and it's a large part of why I ended up calling my brand Living Forward, not because I had arrived anywhere in particular, but because I was still, one difficult day at a time, learning what it means to keep choosing to move forward.
Where the Five Keys Came From
Long before any of that, there was a minivan I had turned into a camper, parked somewhere quiet in the woods, and a question I finally let myself ask out loud after years of avoiding it: what do I actually want to do with the rest of my life?
In that stillness, five words rose up, not something I sat down and invented, but something closer to what I finally slowed down enough to hear. Gratitude. Intuitive Intention. Family and Friends. Treasured Wisdom. Self-Love and Care. Together, they spell GIFTS, and they were never meant to be five separate
practices to check off. They were, and still are, one whole way of living, waiting for me to finally pay attention to it.
What I'm Building Now
I have spent most of my life collecting stories, first as a
teacher and a director of education, then as a mother of four and
a grandmother, and now as someone who has written eighteen
books, eleven of them out in the world for anyone to read.
Somewhere along the way, collecting other people's stories turned
into wanting to help other people preserve their own, because I
believe a life fully lived deserves to be remembered, not just felt.
If you have ever thought, I don't know where to begin, or worse, I
am afraid I have already waited too long, I understand that
feeling more than you know, and I am building this for you.
The Personal Stuff
Michael and I have been married for over fifty years, and somewhere in there we raised four children, who gave us ten grandchildren and, more recently, two great-grandbabies. These days there is also Molly, a rescue dog who, fittingly enough,
walks with a bit of a limp of her own. When I'm not writing, you'll likely find me traveling somewhere new, painting happily, or already dreaming up whatever comes next.
I hold certifications as a Certified Holistic Health Coach and a Belief Coding® facilitator, and I trained at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and am board certified by the American Academy of Drugless Practitioners. But truthfully, that training sits behind the work I do. It was never the reason I started doing it.
It's Never Too Late to Live Forward
Whatever brought you here today, GIFTS, the Messy Middle, a long
marriage, or simply curiosity, I'm glad you came. And I hope you'll
stay a while.