Tender, intimate, and deeply lived-in, Taking Turns Holding On honors caregiving as an act of love, endurance, and mutual vulnerability. Helms writes with quiet honesty, making this monologue feel like a private conversation generously shared.

Rich Helms has taken us on a marital journey - a journey of life and a journey that sets us on the road of a 'caretaker's and caregiver's'. The sensibility of this piece is so real, it's as if we're sitting in the character's kitchen, each with a beer late into the night, reviewing our lives. The marriage discussed is a solid one but the third member of this grouping is cancer. But we are in it as with a good friend - it does not ask for tears. It asks for an ear. Well done.

This monologue resonated with me for a number of reasons. I've been on this journey in my own way on several occasions, and the way Rich Helms describes it has a universal connection with anyone who has loved and cared for someone and then been cared for themselves. It is a part of life, of living, and for those who have yet to set out on it, it is a roadmap that they will fill in with their own markers. But seeing where Rich has gone is a generous gift.