New Book Release! Tending To Your Garden…

On July 31, 2025, I co-hosted the My Sister’s Keeper Foundation for Women Scholarship Program. This event holds such significance for me because the initial MSK scholarship given in 2009 is named for my mother Margaret Griffin Baker. For many years my mother stood with me and MSK Foundation for Women as we supported women through coaching and mentoring relationships, capacity building programs, community service and philanthropic endeavors. What began as a $500 scholarship shared between 2 women in 2009 has expanded, now totaling $121,000 given in scholarships, as Yolonda Griffin Johnson, Sonya Hunte Vandroff and Carmen Smith Stroud joined me in sponsoring scholarships in honor of a beloved daughter, mother and sister who has passed away.

Trica Hershey states in her book, Rest is Resistance, “Everything starts with the personal. I now sit in a different seat of My Sister’s Keeper Foundation for Women, as Chair of the MSK Scholarship Program. Hershey further states, the microhistories and small details our of lives hold the keys to our redemption. I resonated deeply with this truth as I awarded 2 women with the Margaret G. Baker Scholarship on the eve of announcing my new book, Tending to Your Garden: Moving Through Grief with Intentional Self-Care and Soul-Care.

Because of whom my mother was, I am the woman that I am today. Her story is my story. Her history is my history. Her strength is my strength. Her determination is my determination. Her passion for education and the healing of hurting people inspires me to grow daily and love deeply. Mom lived, until she died.

Thus, this book, which is a major part of my healing process, is dedicated to my mother’s memory. The proceeds of this book will fund the Margaret G. Baker Second Chance Award to ensure that women like my mother, whose education was interrupted when she gave birth to me and again after the death of my father, will always have a second chance at completing her education.

Furthermore, I proffer in this book that Self-care and Soul-care together reshapes our grief journey. It prompts us to remember that although we have experienced loss, we are still breathing and living. By engaging in meaningful self-care and soul-care, we are tending to every part of our being and can flourish like a well-watered garden.

Purchase your copy of, Tending To Your Garden and the companion reflection journal at www.drtonialvarado.com and partner with me in giving and writing new stories on the other side of grief.

Dr. Toni