"Standing By" by Jo McElroy Senecal
– Not so fast, my slowly dying friend!
Out there my heart easily held you with the thrum of ancestral music, song, and dance, as consistent as air.
A native fish-taco-loving San Diegan, Jo McElroy Senecal spent decades on the East Coast, blending professional stage and clown credits with various roles at magical powerhouses like The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp and The Big Apple Circus Clown Care (now Healthy Humor). Her NYTimes article hints at her passion for pediatric palliative care, which Jo continues to do along with adult hospice care in Charleston, South Carolina. Jo has been a member of the Lunas, six actors-turned-writers, for two decades. .Jo is a member of Sullivan’s Island’s Poe Library Memoir Group.
Author’s Talk
The narrator:
“Jo,
‘Standing By’ appears Wednesday, April 1, 2026, on "6-minute Stories" podcast.
Thank you for this penetratingly real, painful, and beautiful story.
I recorded it four times before I could get through it without breaking down.
Brilliant.”
Jo Senecal on her pilgrimage in Spain walking the Camino de Santiago
The writer:
“I’m just home from another intense hospital day, where I held a dying baby and held space for a mom as her little one was in surgery. It was another nine-hour day of witnessing, processing, and holding people during these hard-to-describe events and moments. Yesterday was the ‘same,’ and the day before that.
“On the way home I cried, releasing all this tension that comes from watching people struggle, and also the relief and joy when things work out, plus the mad swirl that enters nurses and doctors’ brains when they are given another child or adult in a new crisis.
“I wasn’t sure what to make of it, until I read your email just now.
“To think you were emotionally connected to this particular ‘story’ made my heart almost happy. Because even now, I’m not sure what to make of it. These aren’t just ‘stories’, they are lives I’ve been honored to hold and witness, and the worst thing I can think of is not honoring the person I’m writing about. I have to be very mindful of personal traits per “HIPPA” rules, which I follow big time, but there’s an ache in my heart that wants to make sure I’m sharing it the way they’d want me to share it.
“With all the fighting in the world, this is one of the ways I connect love to love to love, and it’s a mind-bending honor to be a part of someone’s unique story during really difficult times. So, I need to thank you from the bottom of my heart for being connected like you are. Such connection is a noble part of this world, and I appreciate yours greatly.
“Thank everyone at the Personal Story Publishing Project for a generous spirit, loving support, and fierce dedication to writers who might still be searching for ways to share their stories.
“Just…thank all of you. I am proud to be a part of this experience.
I’m proud to know you all.
Love, jo.”
