Carrie Cuthbert is an Advanced Care Paramedic, painter, storyteller, mother, and grandmother living in Calgary, Canada.
Curator’s Note: Carrie Cuthbert, an Advanced Care Paramedic and storyteller from Calgary, Canada, shares her journey of blending paramedicine with storytelling and art. Over 18 years in emergency medicine shaped her understanding of people’s experiences, grief, and resilience. Writing became a cathartic outlet for her reflections on life, death, and identity, moving toward an upcoming book that captures her stories and those of women in her art workshops. Cuthbert emphasizes holistic health, creativity, and meaningful connections, advocating for uncomfortable conversations in writing. She seeks to help others through her narratives while transforming her passion into a career. This interview was conducted by Dr Mehmet Yildiz, owner and chief editor of ILLUMINATION Integrated Publications on Medium, Substack, Patreon, and Digitalmehmet.
Dear Subscribers,
Welcome to another episode of my conversations with professionals and leaders in their field. In today’s episode, I invited Carrie Cuthbert, who writes under the pen name of The Story Telling Paramedic. Carrie is new to this platform but not new to storytelling, a passion of hers. Carrie’s poignant stories from her paramedic career resonate deeply with me, reflecting the realities of our lives. I also admire Carrie’s visual art, so I thought it would be great to introduce this new member to our community.
Hi Carrie, welcome. Let’s start with a bit about your background.
Hi Dr Yildiz, thank you for the invitation. I’d be happy to share some highlights from my life. I’ve been a storyteller my whole life, a gift from my father. That gift has found its way into my art, writing, and paramedicine.
I spent 18 years working in emergency medicine, much of that time as an Advanced Care Paramedic. It gave me an extraordinary window into people’s lives, often on their worst days, and I think it shaped me and the way I understand people, relationships, grief, resilience, and ultimately storytelling.
Art came later, or perhaps more accurately, I finally gave myself permission to take it seriously later. My visual work is deeply narrative. I incorporate found or meaningful materials into landscapes and mixed-media pieces, allowing objects from the past to exist inside places where I now find joy, healing, and presence.
Writing has become another extension of that same practice. I write about emergency medicine, family, grief, relationships, identity, and what it means to reinvent yourself later in life. I’m approaching 60, and rather than seeing that as an ending, I’ve become fascinated by what can still begin.
At the center of all of it —paramedicine, art, and writing—are really the same thing: people and their stories.
Why did you choose your profession?
I chose paramedicine out of convenience or necessity; I’m still not sure which. I was a stay-at-home mom, and when my children were all in school, I realized I needed to do something for me. I had always loved medicine, but at that point in my life I wasn’t willing to embark on eight years of university.
I happened to have a neighbor who was a paramedic, and I went on a ride-along with him. I was hooked.
I’ve always been an adventurer, and paramedicine has that element of never knowing what would happen next, combined with medicine, which makes for the perfect combination. But just as importantly, the education was something I could take in stages and build around my children.
I dipped my toe into pre-hospital care with the first level of training, Emergency Medical Responder. It was a relatively short commitment compared with going back to university, so it felt manageable. I loved it, and I kept going.
Over the next four years, I continued my education around my children’s needs until I became an Advanced Care Paramedic. What started as a practical decision about what I could fit into my life became an 18-year career that profoundly shaped who I am.
What do health and well-being mean to you?
That’s a loaded question. I don’t think health is just physical. We are more than that. To me, health encompasses the body, mind, and spirit, something I think Western medicine can sometimes overlook.
I love doing physical activities like running or yoga because they, for me, touch all three. They challenge my body, clear my mind, and give me a sense of balance.
I suppose I see health and well-being in much the same way. It isn’t about one part of us functioning well while the others are ignored. It’s about trying to care for the whole person. And as I age, that has become increasingly important to me. I don’t just want to live longer. I want to age well.
What are your hobbies, or what excites or entertains you?
I’ve always been a physical person, and I’m usually up for trying anything even if my almost-60-year-old body occasionally tries to remind me of its age.
I’m also deeply creative. That shows up in my art and writing, but also in gardening, home renovation, and almost anything that lets me make or transform something.
My greatest excitement, though, is my grandson, who just turned one. Spending time with him is probably the most fulfilling and entertaining thing I can do.
I’m not sure if I was simply too tired when I was raising my own children, or if enough time has passed that I’ve forgotten what it was like, but I could literally watch him all day. The way he moves, discovers something new, studies the world, and figures out how things work absolutely fascinates me.
There is something extraordinary about watching a person discover the world for the very first time.
What are the top three books that have affected your life?
Among many books I read, the first, Atomic Habits by James Clear.
It’s very easy for me to get pulled in many different directions. This book helped me simplify the way I think about habits and reminded me that small, consistent actions can move you toward something much bigger.
Next, The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari by Robin Sharma
I absolutely love this book. I just finished it, and I think it is going to become a bit of a blueprint for how I approach the next chapter of my life. At almost sixty, I find myself thinking much more about purpose — what I want the next part of my life to look like and, more importantly, what I want it to mean.
The third one is Anatomy of the Spirit by Caroline Myss
There is an idea in this book that has stayed with me for years: before we can truly commit ourselves to another person, we must first be in union with ourselves. That was incredibly important for me to understand. You need to love, honor, and commit to yourself first. That isn’t selfish. It is what allows you to truly be there for other people without completely losing yourself in the process. A lesson I learned late in life.
Let’s talk about your passion for storytelling. Why do you write?
I find writing incredibly cathartic. I have almost two decades’ worth of shit to unpack and process. But it’s more than that.
For nearly 18 years, I was allowed into some of the most vulnerable, human, and deeply personal moments of people’s lives. I saw people at their most frightened, their most devastated, their most hopeful, and sometimes at the very end of life. I have always considered that access a privilege.
Those experiences shaped who I am and the way I see the world. I’ve been a storyteller my whole life, and sometimes I think there was a reason this storytelling girl ended up standing in all of those rooms and witnessing all of those lives. Now I feel a responsibility to do something with what I was given.
I write because there are things about life, death, grief, medicine, family, and humanity that I have been able to see from a perspective most people never will. If I can tell those stories well, maybe they can help someone else see something differently or feel a little less alone in their own experience.
Do you write on other platforms like Substack? If so, how do you find them?
I also write on Substack. I initially started it partly because I wanted to explore whether my writing could eventually become another source of income.
What I’m beginning to appreciate about Substack, though, is the more direct connection with readers. Medium has been wonderful for helping new people discover my writing, while Substack feels more like building a community of people who have actively chosen to keep hearing from me.
I’m still fairly new to both, so I’m learning what each platform can offer and where my writing ultimately belongs. Thank you also for inviting me to be a guest blogger in your community magazine.
What are your values as a writer?
I think my values as a writer are really the same as my values as a person. Honesty comes first. Depth matters to me too. I think the hard conversations are the most important ones, and I’m not particularly interested in skimming the surface.
Humor also matters. It has gotten me through a lot, and even in the heaviest parts of life, I think there is still room for it.
My husband recently commented that my writing is heavy. I had never really thought of it that way. To me, it’s simply what I’ve been carrying for the last eighteen years.
I hope my writing touches the people who are willing to venture down those long, dark roads with me. Because ultimately, I don’t write about darkness just to stay there. I hope that by going into it honestly, I can bring a little light back out with me.
Why did you join ILLUMINATION, and how do you find it so far?
ILLUMINATION has been wonderful. Having my articles published there was one of the first steps toward believing that I was actually a writer.
There is something powerful about putting your work out into the world and having someone else say, in effect, yes, this belongs here. I think I needed that little bit of validation in the beginning.
Since then, it has given me a place to share my work, reach new readers, and continue building confidence in a part of myself that I’m still discovering.
What are your top five stories that you want to share with your audience and why?
Here are my five stories reflecting various aspects of my life.
Last Night I Watched My Father Die: This one is deeply personal and, in many ways, marked the moment I began taking my writing seriously. After years of witnessing death professionally, this was the story where all of that collided with losing my own father.
I Wished I Were a Bear Killer: This story reminds me never to judge the size of a person’s life by the body they are living in now. It also reminds me to live life large while I can, because we never really know the lives people have already lived or how quickly our own circumstances can change.
Big Girl: This story explores all the roles I became for other people before I had much chance to decide who I wanted to be for myself. It looks at my roots, motherhood, responsibility, and how, approaching sixty, I am finally choosing some identities of my own.
Some of the Happiest Years of My Life Were in an Abusive Marriage: I love that the title is confronting, but I love even more that the story allows two seemingly contradictory truths to coexist. There was abuse and fear, but there were also years of genuine happiness, particularly in motherhood. Life is rarely as simple as one label, and I think there is value in being willing to talk about those uncomfortable contradictions.
I Dreamt of Flight: This one flirts with the spiritual side of me and with my willingness to wonder whether some things mean more than I can prove. It explores grief, nature, signs, coincidence, and the possibility that a shift in perspective can change what we are able to see.
What are the success factors for you as a writer?
Success for me would be continuing to write about things that matter to me, things that matter to other people, and perhaps most importantly, things that are difficult to talk about.
I want to keep having the conversations that are uncomfortable, complicated, deeply human, and sometimes easier to avoid.
I would also love for writing to eventually become a career. To be able to support myself by doing something that feels meaningful to me would be an extraordinary kind of success.
But I don’t want success to come at the expense of the writing itself. If I can continue telling stories I believe need to be told, connect with people through them, and build a life around doing that, I think I would consider myself very successful.
What do you recommend to new writers?
Write every day. Write about what resonates with you, not simply what you think people want to read. And most importantly, write the things that make you uniquely you. There are countless people who can write about grief, medicine, relationships, or reinvention. What no one else can bring is your perspective. Trust that.
What are your plans as a writer or as a professional?
I want to turn my writing into a book. I have spent almost two decades collecting stories without realizing that was what I was doing. Now I’m beginning to see how they connect: stories about emergency medicine, grief, family, identity, survival, aging, and reinvention.
I’m also working on another book with women from my workshops at the Women’s Center of Calgary. The idea is to chronicle the stories of women who attend my art workshops, exploring the many ways they support one another throughout their lives and how art can play a role during some of the most difficult times.
That project feels especially meaningful to me because it isn’t only about my story. It creates a space for women to share their own experiences, in their own voices, and for those stories to become part of something larger.
These are both works in progress, and the process and creativity behind them are what fuel my passion for writing.
Thank you for this great conversation, Dr Yildiz. I look forward to contributing to your publications and community.
Many thanks to Carrie Cuthbert for giving us a glimpse of her interesting life. Apart from Medium, you can also connect with her on Substack, Facebook, and ILLUMINATION Slack Workspace. Carrie has also joined as a guest blogger on our community blogs on my author platform, so you can follow her upcoming updates in her blog posts. I invite you to check out her profiles, stories, and visual art and subscribe to her mailing list.
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