“Your mom has Alzheimers”. The sound of my dad’s voice, in a low, almost hushed tone, reverberted loudly in my mind. I will never forget his voice or the somber look on his face. I immediately thought of what I knew of Alzheimers: memory loss and eventually, death. And that was all.

My mom was adopted at birth. She never knew her biological father or mother. The only information she has been given was from some of her biological aunts and uncles, whom she found later on in adulthood. We know her biological mom died before she was forty years old. We do not know why. My mom’s adopted mother, her true mother, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease in the 1983. I was in the ninth grade and until then, I had never heard of Alzheimer’s Disease. I remember visiting my grandma and she did not know who we were. My grandpa and my mom arranged for her to go to a dementia care unit, because it became too much for my grandpa to care for her. I only visited her there one time. She cried saying the nurses were trying to starve her to death. She had just finished eating dinner not ten minutes before and simply did not remember. She yelled at my mom for taking her away from her home and told us to get out. It scared me. I was not allowed to visit her again. Not long after, my grandma passed away. All those memories came flooding back with the softly spoken words from my dad. “Your mom has Alzheimers”. No, not my mom. This can’t be.

The signs were there: forgetting names, dates and some confusion. But we all do that right? How many times have I walked into a room only to forget what I went in there for, or misplaced my keys? But, I knew this was different. My mom had to retire from her job as an Executive Secretary at a bank, where she had worked for over 30 years. She simply could no longer perform the job duties that until recently had been second nature to her.

Based upon my limited knowledge of Alzheimer’s, I thought my mom’s prognosis was: memory loss that gets worse over a short time and then sadly, death. That had been my experience with my grandma, not knowing what truths were hidden from me. Those truths are so much more. I was not prepared.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.