Grandma What's A Soul About The Author
 
ABOUT REV. KAREN HERRICK: Rev. Karen E. Herrick, PhD, is the director of the Center for Children of Alcoholics Inc. in Red Bank, New Jersey. She holds an MSW from Rutgers University and a PhD from Union Institute & University in Cincinnati, Ohio. Over the past thirty years, she has developed a successful private practice helping people with all types of psychological problems, including addictions, and has lectured throughout the United States on dysfunctional and addictive homes, dissociation, and grief and loss from a Jungian perspective.

Ordained at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Rev. Herrick is the Academy for Spiritual and Consciousness Studies’ first female president in thirty-seven years. A mother of three daughters, and grandmother of eight, she is passionate about helping people of all ages better understand their unique spiritual experiences and develop healthy ways to handle their grief over the loss of loved ones.

ABOUT DUNCAN: He's my last grandchild who lives near me in Red Bank, NJ. Other grandchildren live in Nevada and California.  When he was six weeks old, I started taking him with me on Fridays while his mother worked.  As a result, he grew up with Friday being “Grandma’s Day.”  I remember when we walked into a garage sale one Friday about mid-morning and the owner stated, "Wow, I've had just Grandmas buying this morning."  And 2 ½ year-old Duncan shook his head “Yes” and said “That’s because it’s Grandma’s Day.”

Duncan is a pretty typical boy.  He plays lots of video games and loves to watch appropriate YouTube videos.  We receive a science project every month that we put together.  Science is Duncan’s favorite subject.  Duncan has a wonderful sense of humor and likes to play practical jokes especially on his older brother.

He asks a lot of questions because he is very curious and mostly he wants to know how things work and why.  His older brother is twelve years older than he.  This brother taught Duncan to read when he was 3 ½ years old so he would not have to sound out every Pokemon card and so Duncan could read them himself.  

EMMA’S STORY, HOW SHE CAME TO BE:

In October of 2012, my home in Monmouth County, New Jersey was flooded by Hurricane Sandy.  As I was putting this back together, I saw a photo of Candice Bushnell, the author of Sex and the City, in the New York Times magazine section.  She was standing with two dogs, one on either side of her in front of a fireplace decorated with ribbons.

Since the hurricane, I had been thinking of my “bucket” list and had decided to start working on it.  I had always wanted a standard poodle.  When I saw these beautiful dogs, I said to a friend.  “Wow, look at those poodles!  They are really different.”  She looked at the magazine page and said, “Those aren’t poodles.”  “Well, what kind of dogs are they then?”  “I don’t know but poodles aren’t two colors.”

“Hmmm, I thought, Candice Bushnell is a writer.  I’ll google her and ask her.”  My answer came back in less than four hours.  “Yes, they were poodles – parti-poodles; parti being a word for two colors.  These black and white dogs come from Texas.”  And, she gave me the email address, which started me on my journey to discover Emma.

Emma was born on March 24, 2013 in Van, Texas, one of six or seven puppies.  She was flown to me by United Pet Care on Memorial Day weekend in 2013.

Her name is Emma Jung Herrick for the wife of Carl Jung, the Swiss psychologist who founded the Analytical Psychology that I practice in Red Bank, New Jersey. 

I hadn’t owned a dog since my children were small about thirty years ago.  I really didn’t know what I was getting myself in for.  I had a split level house, the bottom still under construction.  Every four hours we made the trip down two flights to the outside so she could “go” on grass because she had been grass trained.

During July of that year I was very sleep deprived but by August, I knew I was through the worse of “my” training and we were becoming a team.  Since then, Emma has adopted my eighth grandchild, Duncan and they both sit in the back of my car as we run errands and do things together.  Emma is also a great addition to my therapy office.  She greets people in the lobby and gets treats if she sits and gives them her paw.  I understand, that the waiting list for dogs like Emma is now over two years long. 
Grooming for Emma's Photo 
Flo's Happy Clipper, Eatontown, NJ 
C. 2023 Grandma What Is A Soul?