Mary Pembleton
Asheville-based freelance content writer, thoughtful journalist, evocative essayist.
I'm a mother and writer in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. My areas of interest include parenting, caregiving, education, travel, local business, health & wellness, medicine, renewable energy, and mental health.
I also love learning new things and meeting new people, so please do reach out to discuss any content writing or marketing writing needs you may be looking for. It would be my pleasure to work with you.
Featured Essays and Reported Articles
A Pulse of Joy Amid Tragedy
While I don’t believe in a deity in the sky who doles out grace to some and withholds it from others, I do believe in a little spark of the divine in each and every one of us. And proximity to both nature and death can sometimes draw us closer to it, can thin the veil into something threadbare and shimmering. Though we remain on the pandemic’s periphery, my husband and I stare at each other each evening when we say good night, awed by a heightened awareness that life is precious and finite.
In
In
Can Elderberry Treat the Flu?
This story was originally published on March 3, 2020 on NYT Parenting.
It’s touted as a “miracle” remedy for a variety of pesky winter bugs: colds, flu and yes, even recently, the coronavirus. Elderberry has garnered a cult following on social media in recent years, and has the sales numbers to show for it. According to a report published by the American Botanical Council in 2019, sales of elderberry supplements, which are made from the fruit of a flowering shrub, more than doubled in the Unite
It’s touted as a “miracle” remedy for a variety of pesky winter bugs: colds, flu and yes, even recently, the coronavirus. Elderberry has garnered a cult following on social media in recent years, and has the sales numbers to show for it. According to a report published by the American Botanical Council in 2019, sales of elderberry supplements, which are made from the fruit of a flowering shrub, more than doubled in the Unite
There is a shortage of pediatric organ donors. Here’s what parents need to know.
“We miss the opportunity to talk about this when kids aren’t sick. A lot of families only receive education after the most tragic thing that could ever happen to them happens,” said Timothy Vece, a pediatric pulmonologist with UNC Health Care in Chapel Hill, N.C., who worked with Noah and his family.
“If one family says no from the pediatric side, it’s almost 10 times worse than an adult saying no because most of the time, pediatric patients have to get an organ from a pediatric donor,” Fleming
“If one family says no from the pediatric side, it’s almost 10 times worse than an adult saying no because most of the time, pediatric patients have to get an organ from a pediatric donor,” Fleming
Little Wished-for Deaths (Published 2019)
The body of a tick encased in wax lies in a candle in my bathroom where I set it aflame after picking it off my son. A mouse got trapped in my car engine and I can smell its little death whenever I’m after some fresh air. The demises those of pests, those of health threats and nuisances, guilty only of trying to survive.
There were times during the four years I cared for my grandfather that I found myself wishing for the reprieve of his death, his failing body becoming a burden to my own health
There were times during the four years I cared for my grandfather that I found myself wishing for the reprieve of his death, his failing body becoming a burden to my own health
Contact Me
I love to write, but I also love to listen.
Reach out anytime.
Email: marypembletonwrites@gmail.com