Grief & Happiness

If you've wondered how unspoken grief shapes those you love, episode 464 of Grief and Happiness is for you. Author Audrey Hyams Romoff, daughter of a child Auschwitz survivor, shares how her family's silence reached her daughter. A joint trip to Auschwitz broke it, showing how honesty and kindness can keep trauma from the next generation.In This Episode, You Will Learn:(00:53) Audrey's background and her memoir on four generations of women(01:21) Her mother's childhood in Auschwitz and the silence passed down to her daughter(09:22) How a trip to Auschwitz with her daughter changed their relationship(11:56) Why the crowds at Auschwitz gave mother and daughter opposite reactions(15:25) Writing a grief memoir without tying it up in a pretty bow(17:23) Why the circumstances of a death shape how grief lingers(19:44) How her mother and grandmother carried the same trauma so differently(32:30) Why "survivor" marks the start of a new battle, not the end(34:07) Small kindnesses and her Aunt Sheila's motto: just show upAudrey Hyams Romoff was born in Montreal to a mother who was one of the youngest children to survive Auschwitz, and grew up in a home that looked polished while that history played out within. In Toronto, she founded OverCat, a communications and influencer agency, consulting for brands such as Victoria's Secret and Estée Lauder and stars like Jennifer Lawrence. Cosmetics Magazine named her a top public relations executive, and she chaired communications for the Fashion Cares AIDS fundraiser. Her memoir, The Undertow of Grief: Navigating Intergenerational Trauma, follows the Holocaust's impact across four generations of women.In this episode, Audrey shows how unspoken trauma is passed down. She describes her mother's refusal to face her past and the loss of both parents in 2008, when her mother ended her life and her father died alongside her. After learning her daughter, Lindsay, had hidden her own grief to protect her, Audrey traveled with her to Auschwitz for PBS NewsHour on the 80th anniversary of its liberation. She explains why her mother rejected the word "survivor," why Audrey sees survival as the start of a new battle, and why her book offers no tidy ending. Grief and joy coexist, she says, but grief never leaves, and she closes with a case for small kindnesses and her Aunt Sheila's motto: just show up.Connect with Audrey Hyams Romoff:WebsiteInstagramTikTokFacebookLinkedInYouTubeBook: Audrey Hyams Romoff - The Undertow of Grief: Navigating Intergenerational TraumaLet's Connect: WebsiteLinkedInFacebookInstagramTwitterPinterestThe Grief and Happiness AllianceBook: Emily Thiroux Threatt - Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hawaiians see the ocean and sky together as one, and they call that Lani, the Hawaiian word for heaven. Let's Connect:You can join the Grief and Happiness Alliance which meets weekly on Sundays by clicking hereYou can order the International Best Selling The Grief and Happiness Guide by clicking here.You can order Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief by clicking here at Amazon:You can listen to my podcast, Grief and Happiness, by clicking hereRequest your Awaken Your Happiness Journaling Guide hereSee acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you've ever wondered how one small idea could turn grief into a mission that helps hundreds of children, episode 462 of Grief and Happiness is for you. Guest Stephen Greengo turns a hospital memory of daughter Harper into Tiara4Harper.com, sending a tiara to a child at Children's Mercy Hospital for every one sold. Funded through his own concert security shifts, Stephen shows how one act of gratitude becomes a lasting legacy of joy.In This Episode, You Will Learn:(00:56) Stephen's background and gratitude behind the tiara business(02:21) Harper's hospital memory and the vibrating chair that shaped it all(04:55) Ten years after Harper's passing while still believing she's watching(06:08) The discovery behind it — 60,000 women search for tiaras monthly(07:32) How a tiara lets women feel like a princess, guilt-free(08:32) Growing the mission from 50 to 127 tiaras donated(10:43) Turning everyday encounters, like security shifts, into marketing(14:29) How listeners can get involved with Tiara4HarperStephen Greengo is a Navy veteran and Kansas City dad whose daughter Harper was born on January 10, 2014, and passed away from Sandhoff disease, a rare genetic disorder, just eight days shy of her second birthday. Rather than let grief take over, Stephen turned that loss into a vow to keep Harper's light alive, and that vow became Tiara4Harper.com, a mission-driven tiara business built entirely around her memory.In this episode, Stephen focuses on the business itself: how a hospital memory of Harper finding joy in a simple vibrating chair, paired with his observation of how often women buy tiaras for everyday occasions, became the blueprint for a company where every tiara sold sends a matching one to a little girl at Children's Mercy Hospital. He speaks candidly about running the operation on his own, funding it through security shifts at concerts, partnering with union halls for bulk donations, and reaching 127 tiaras donated to date, all while working toward donating as many as possible by November 18, National Princess Day. Guided by his philosophy, "Lift Where You Stand," Stephen frames the business as both a way of honoring Harper and a model for turning grief into consistent, small acts of service.Connect with Stephen Greengo:WebsiteInstagramTikTokFacebookLet's Connect: WebsiteLinkedInFacebookInstagramTwitterPinterestThe Grief and Happiness AllianceBook: Emily Thiroux Threatt - Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Every week the Grief and Happiness Alliance invites you to come to our free gatherings.We meet Sundays at 9 AM Hawaii time, noon Pacific time and 3 Eastern time. Register each week to receive the Zoom link by clicking here.Sign up for our newsletter to learn all we do by clicking here.Visit our website by clicking here.We look forward to seeing you at our gatherings.Let's Connect:You can join the Grief and Happiness Alliance which meets weekly on Sundays by clicking hereYou can order the International Best Selling The Grief and Happiness Guide by clicking here.You can order Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief by clicking here at Amazon:You can listen to my podcast, Grief and Happiness, by clicking hereRequest your Awaken Your Happiness Journaling Guide hereSee acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you've ever wondered what tarot and ancient mourning rituals can teach us about grief, episode 460 of Grief and Happiness is for you. Psychic medium Jenna Matlin discusses her book, The Tarot Book of the Dead, born from helping clients hold unresolved loss—including the taboo "widow's fire" that can follow a partner's death. She compares global grieving traditions to the West's approach, showing how ritual can make grief sacred.In This Episode, You Will Learn:(01:06) Jenna Matlin's introduction — tarot reading, mediumship, and doula training(01:55) How tarot and mediumship help clients process unresolved grief(06:15) What Western culture gets wrong about holding space for someone else's pain(08:26) Emily's story of losing her husband Jacques — and the friends who stayed(14:00) Why some people receive spirit visits in dreams and others don't(18:04) The "At the Waterline" tarot spread for grief and mediumship readings(23:06) "Widow's fire": the instinctual desire for aliveness after loss(27:06) How death became the unexpected inspiration behind The Tarot Book of the DeadJenna Matlin is a professional tarot reader and psychic medium based in Durham, North Carolina, with a practice serving clients worldwide since 2012 and a tarot career dating to 1990. She is the author of multiple books, most recently The Tarot Book of the Dead, published by Weiser Books, drawing on her anthropology background and cross-cultural research into death and mourning. Her honors include a COVR Silver Award and Best Spiritual Guru distinction from Philadelphia Magazine, and she teaches at Omega Institute while mentoring aspiring readers.In this episode, Jenna brings that lens to grief, exploring it through tarot, mediumship, and ritual. Drawing on her anthropology background, she contrasts the West's administrative approach to death with the communal, presence-based mourning of indigenous cultures, arguing Western culture rarely teaches people to sit with pain without trying to fix it. She describes tools she uses with grieving clients, including a tarot spread called "At the Waterline," and speaks to disenfranchised grief among those excluded from funerals. She also introduces "widow's fire," the surge of desire that can follow a partner's death, framing it as sacred rather than shameful, and closes by weaving in myth to argue grief deserves more ritual and community.Connect with Jenna Matlin:WebsiteInstagramTikTokYouTubeGet Jenna's books!Let's Connect: WebsiteLinkedInFacebookInstagramTwitterPinterestThe Grief and Happiness AllianceBook: Emily Thiroux Threatt - Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Do you stay in touch with your friends? If not, today is a good time to start!Let's Connect:You can join the Grief and Happiness Alliance which meets weekly on Sundays by clicking hereYou can order the International Best Selling The Grief and Happiness Guide by clicking here.You can order Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief by clicking here at Amazon:You can listen to my podcast, Grief and Happiness, by clicking hereRequest your Awaken Your Happiness Journaling Guide hereSee acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you've ever wondered how one word, scrawled on a beach stone, could turn into a national movement, episode 456 of Grief and Happiness is for you. Grace Trail founder Anne Barry Jolles shares how five simple questions pulled her out of grief and later helped her cope while her son served in combat overseas. She shows how the right questions, asked at the right moment, can turn despair into a path forward.In This Episode, You Will Learn:(00:49) Anne introduces Grace Trail and its five-question framework(01:51) The kitchen floor breakdown that gave birth to the five questions(04:30) Walking the questions with her husband turned grief into connection(07:00) Her son's deployment to Afghanistan and the birth of the first physical trail(13:03) From beach stones to boulders: what a Grace Trail looks like, and its growth into schools, hospitals, and workplaces(19:43) Grace Trail's international reach and the search for a partner to help it scale(22:08) Trail kits, meaningful gifts, and the power of writing your answers down(25:13) Letting nature guide the process — and Anne's closing thoughtsAnne Barry Jolles is an occupational therapist and certified professional coach who founded Grace Trail®, a national resilience movement built around five guiding questions: gratitude, release, accept, challenge, and embrace. She created the process in 2000 while grieving the loss of both her parents, and has since coached more than 2,000 clients and delivered the TEDx talk "Cracking the Grace Code." Her work has earned her ICF New England's Life Coach of the Year award and international recognition, including a feature in Marie Claire Hungary.In this episode, Anne shares the origin story behind Grace Trail, tracing how the five questions emerged intuitively from the word "grace" during that period of grief, and how the practice deepened after her son returned from combat in Afghanistan in 2012. She describes Grace Trail's growth from hand-lettered stones on a Massachusetts trail to more than a dozen licensed installations nationwide, spanning universities, hospitals, schools, and a farm in Texas, with an upcoming VA site honoring her son's service. She also discusses the trail kits she designed for those without trail access, the simple rules that keep it safe — privacy, confidentiality, judgment-free listening — and her hope to expand Grace Trail nationwide and eventually worldwide.Connect with Anne Barry Jolles:WebsiteFacebookLinkedInInstagramXYouTubeGet Anne's books!Let's Connect: WebsiteLinkedInFacebookInstagramTwitterPinterestThe Grief and Happiness AllianceBook: Emily Thiroux Threatt - Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What is your definition of a good death?Let's Connect:You can join the Grief and Happiness Alliance which meets weekly on Sundays by clicking hereYou can order the International Best Selling The Grief and Happiness Guide by clicking here.You can order Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief by clicking here at Amazon:You can listen to my podcast, Grief and Happiness, by clicking hereRequest your Awaken Your Happiness Journaling Guide hereSee acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you've ever wondered how getting deliberately lost could help you heal, episode 456 of Grief and Happiness is for you. David Ferrugio, host of Dead Talks Podcast, shares how losing his father on 9/11 at 12 led to hundreds of conversations about grief and the afterlife. From a solo motorbike ride into Thailand's dark hills to the guilt over public attention, David shows how isolation and risk can carry us through grief.In This Episode, You Will Learn:(00:58) David Ferrugio's introduction and the origin of Dead Talks(01:49) Losing his father on 9/11 at age 12(04:07) Why grief feels universal yet deeply isolating(06:36) Finding community through grief camps and shared experience(08:40) The unexpected path to writing his book(11:15) Why he kept the book eclectic instead of prescriptive(13:40) Finding hope in hundreds of stories, and a solo ride into Thailand's unknown(18:45) The illusion of control and learning to adapt(19:21) Saying yes to uncertainty as a way through grief(26:29) Dead Talks Podcast and his upcoming book, You're Not Dead YetDavid Ferrugio hosts Dead Talks Podcast, which for six years has normalized conversations about grief, loss, and the afterlife through guests' own experiences with death. Having lost his father on 9/11 at 12, he learned the value of sharing stories, a loss that became the foundation of his work and has led to hundreds of conversations on grief and the afterlife. He's also author of the forthcoming book You're Not Dead Yet, out September 8th, blending his story with lessons from his guests.In this episode, David traces how losing his father at 12 shaped an evolving understanding of grief, describing the paradox of feeling isolated despite strong family support, and how guilt over the attention his loss received sparked Dead Talks as a way to spotlight other people's stories. He describes his upcoming book as an eclectic, non-prescriptive collection of perspectives rather than a formula for healing, and shares a story about a solo motorbike ride in Thailand that became a metaphor for stepping into the unknown. The episode closes on how saying yes to uncertainty, and taking the next step, often carries people through grief.Connect with David Ferrugio:WebsiteFacebookInstagramYouTubePodcast: DEAD TalksBook: David Ferrugio - You're Not Dead YetLet's Connect: WebsiteLinkedInFacebookInstagramTwitterPinterestThe Grief and Happiness AllianceBook: Emily Thiroux Threatt - Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Have you tried manifestation? What have you manifested?What is the difference for you between mourning and grief?Let's Connect:You can join the Grief and Happiness Alliance which meets weekly on Sundays by clicking hereYou can order the International Best Selling The Grief and Happiness Guide by clicking here.You can order Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief by clicking here at Amazon:You can listen to my podcast, Grief and Happiness, by clicking hereRequest your Awaken Your Happiness Journaling Guide hereSee acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 454 of Grief and Happiness features author Arik Housley on losing his 18-year-old daughter, Alaina, in the 2018 Borderline Bar & Grill mass shooting. He shares his path to forgiveness and post-traumatic growth, from his teenage son's eulogy the night of the tragedy to the well-meaning phrases that missed the mark, offering practical wisdom on showing up for the grieving.In This Episode, You Will Learn:(01:00) Arik Housley introduces himself and the loss of his daughter, Alaina(02:16) Finding strength in vulnerability, and a story that reshaped his faith(04:46) The night of the Borderline shooting and the family's evacuation(07:52) His 14-year-old son's decision to write a eulogy that same night(09:57) Speaking at the Parents of Murdered Children's Conference(14:29) Navigating the line between giving privacy and creating isolation(17:06) What to say — and what not to say — to someone who's grieving(20:36) Why "I know how you feel" can do more harm than good(24:47) Choosing joy and carrying love forward after unimaginable loss(25:45) The story behind his book, Always NovemberArik Housley is an author, entrepreneur, and public speaker based in Napa Valley, California, where he has spent nearly 30 years building a portfolio of businesses spanning grocery stores, a winery, and a restaurant. He is the father of Alaina Housley, killed at 18 in the 2018 mass shooting at Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks, and author of the bestselling memoir Always November: Lessons in Loss, Love and Resilience, co-written with novelist Holly Lynn Payne. In Alaina's memory, he and his wife, Hannah, founded Alaina's Voice Foundation, supporting mental health and education, and he now speaks widely at universities and conferences on grief and resilience.In this episode, Arik shares the story behind Always November, from the night his family learned of Alaina's murder to the post-traumatic growth that followed, including his decision to forgive the shooter for his own sake, and how he helped his teenage son process the loss of his sister. Much of the conversation turns practical, as Arik offers guidance for supporting the grieving: navigating the line between giving space and disappearing, and why saying something imperfect beats saying nothing at all. He closes by reflecting on how honesty, even when painful, builds the trust that carries families through tragedy.Connect with Arik Housley:WebsiteFacebookInstagramLinkedInSubstackBook: Arik Housley - Always NovemberLet's Connect: WebsiteLinkedInFacebookInstagramTwitterPinterestThe Grief and Happiness AllianceBook: Emily Thiroux Threatt - Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Keeping track of what makes you happy can make you happier!Let's Connect:You can join the Grief and Happiness Alliance which meets weekly on Sundays by clicking hereYou can order the International Best Selling The Grief and Happiness Guide by clicking here.You can order Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief by clicking here at Amazon:You can listen to my podcast, Grief and Happiness, by clicking hereRequest your Awaken Your Happiness Journaling Guide hereSee acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you've ever felt divorce only leaves one way to fight, episode 452 of Grief and Happiness is for you. Divorce coach Karen McNenny reframes divorce as its own kind of grief, sharing tools for splitting with dignity, from a "divorce announcement" to protecting kids caught in the middle.In This Episode, You Will Learn:(01:04) Karen McNenny's divorce story and founding the Good Divorce Academy(03:23) Emily on staying in an unhappy marriage because she felt she "had to"(04:17) Why society permits changing everything except marital status(07:52) The "elegant exit" and Karen's mayonnaise-jar metaphor for knowing it's over(10:45) The shame and judgment divorcing families face, and how to support them(13:23) The "divorce announcement" tool for controlling the narrative(17:30) Why kids should never be the mediator or messenger between parents(20:54) Comparing the grief of divorce versus losing a spouse to death(31:10) Karen's wound-to-scar metaphor for how divorce grief healsKaren McNenny is a mediator, certified divorce coach, and co-parenting specialist, and the founder of The Good Divorce Academy. A Montana native with a BFA from Montana State University and graduate studies in London as a Rotary International Scholar, she spent 25 years as a business consultant before shifting her focus to divorce work during the pandemic. She is the author of The Good Divorce: How to End Your Marriage Without Ending Your Family and hosts The Good Divorce Show, now in its fourth season, featuring couples and individuals who've navigated separation well. In this episode, Karen reframes divorce as a form of grief that's too often overlooked and under-supported, drawing on her own divorce 15 years ago to argue that couples default to adversarial, court-driven splits when society offers no "elegant exit." She shares practical tools from her coaching practice — like writing a joint "divorce announcement" to head off gossip and isolation — and stresses that children should never be used as messengers or mediators between parents. She also unpacks divorce's layered losses (identity, routine, social circle), offering her signature image of grief as a wound that scars but never fully vanishes, and connects her story to Emily's in exploring where divorce grief and death grief overlap and diverge.Connect with Karen McNenny:WebsiteFacebookInstagramLinkedInYouTubePodcast: Good Divorce ShowBook: Karen McNenny - The Good DivorceLet's Connect: WebsiteLinkedInFacebookInstagramTwitterPinterestThe Grief and Happiness AllianceBook: Emily Thiroux Threatt - Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When you live mindfully, you can savor those moments you've expandedLet's Connect:You can join the Grief and Happiness Alliance which meets weekly on Sundays by clicking hereYou can order the International Best Selling The Grief and Happiness Guide by clicking here.You can order Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief by clicking here at Amazon:You can listen to my podcast, Grief and Happiness, by clicking hereRequest your Awaken Your Happiness Journaling Guide hereSee acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 450 of Grief and Happiness features author Annisha Page, who lost her mother suddenly at 17 and turned her grief into Grieving Her, a memoir with blank pages for readers to process their own loss. She shares how music, journaling, and counseling helped her reach acceptance, and why she now urges listeners to stop taking loved ones for granted.In This Episode, You Will Learn:(00:51) Annisha's decision to write a memoir after losing her mother suddenly at 17(02:19) Why so many people bottle up their grief instead of learning how to process it(03:46) The purpose behind the reflection pages built into each chapter of her book(05:42) Why her own writing journey didn't begin until years after her loss(06:50) The music that carried her through grief, from gospel to Tupac(11:59) Reaching acceptance and finding a better place than she was at seventeen(12:52) The sudden loss of her mother and the lesson to never take loved ones for granted(16:37) Grieving Her: where to find the book and her online grief support communityAnnisha Page is the author of Grieving Her: A Journey Through the Loss of My Mother, a memoir chronicling the sudden loss of her mother when Page was just 17 years old. Written years later as she moved through her own grieving process, the book weaves personal reflection with interactive journaling prompts, inviting readers to pause after each chapter and process their own emotions. Page also runs an online grief support community, where she offers a judgment-free space for others navigating loss to share their feelings and connect with people who understand what they're going through.In this episode, Annisha shares the story of her mother's sudden death in a car accident and the disorienting experience of trying to function as a normal teenager while carrying that loss. She talks candidly about how her grieving process unfolded over time, from leaning on music in her younger years to eventually turning to writing in her twenties as a way to process her feelings. Page also opens up about identifying her mother's body and the lasting impact of that moment, as well as the counseling that has helped her along the way. She closes with heartfelt advice for listeners: never take loved ones for granted, resolve conflicts quickly, and tell the people you love how you feel while you still have the chance.Connect with Annisha Page:Book: Annisha Page - Grieving Her: A Journey Through the Loss of My MotherLet's Connect: WebsiteLinkedInFacebookInstagramTwitterPinterestThe Grief and Happiness AllianceBook: Emily Thiroux Threatt - Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Who would you like to have as your guide or mentor as you deal with grief?Let's Connect:You can join the Grief and Happiness Alliance which meets weekly on Sundays by clicking hereYou can order the International Best Selling The Grief and Happiness Guide by clicking here.You can order Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief by clicking here at Amazon:You can listen to my podcast, Grief and Happiness, by clicking hereRequest your Awaken Your Happiness Journaling Guide hereSee acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you've ever wondered whether it's okay to feel relief alongside grief, episode 448 of Grief and Happiness is for you. Debut novelist Anna Nordberg shares how losing her mother as a teenager inspired her novel When She Was Ours. Drawing on twenty years as a journalist, she opens up about becoming a mother herself, rediscovering her own mother as a person, and why Americans still lack the language to talk about loss.In This Episode, You Will Learn:(00:55) Anna Nordberg's shift from journalism to her debut novel, When She Was Ours(02:35) Why grief is now a universal theme in books, film, and TV(03:49) Losing her mother at 17, and learning to hold relief and guilt(06:37) Creating a believably human mother inspired by her own mom(09:49) Setting the scene: a wedding, a diagnosis, a family under pressure(13:24) Why siblings are fiction's most underexplored bond(18:17) Researching medical detail firsthand, bringing journalistic rigor to fiction(24:13) A fictional scene that shifted her bond with her mother's memory(27:24) The "Bay's daughter" moment, carrying her mother through her son's medical scare(32:44) Why writing is a healing, cathartic act, private or sharedAnna Nordberg is a journalist and culture writer whose essays have appeared in Slate, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and the San Francisco Chronicle. She grew up in New York City and now lives in San Francisco with her husband and two children. After two decades in journalism, she pivoted to fiction in her forties, drawing on her mother's death as a teenager to write her debut novel, When She Was Ours, out August 1 and available for pre-order now.On the episode, Anna spoke candidly about how losing her mother to illness at 17 left her without language for contradictory feelings — sadness alongside relief, love alongside loneliness — that no one had told her were normal. She described how becoming a mother gave her new insight into her own mother as a person, and how writing the novel became a way of reconnecting with that memory. She also discussed her fascination with sibling relationships and happy families under pressure as underexplored fiction territory, citing Little Women as an inspiration, and credited journalism with helping her write authentic scenes beyond her own experience. She closed by calling writing a healing, cathartic act, echoing the episode's themes of grief and growth.Connect with Anna Nordberg:WebsiteLinkedInInstagramBook: Anna Nordberg - When She Was OursLet's Connect: WebsiteLinkedInFacebookInstagramTwitterPinterestThe Grief and Happiness AllianceBook: Emily Thiroux Threatt - Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What do you want? Listen to this to see how to get that!Let's Connect:You can join the Grief and Happiness Alliance which meets weekly on Sundays by clicking hereYou can order the International Best Selling The Grief and Happiness Guide by clicking here.You can order Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief by clicking here at Amazon:You can listen to my podcast, Grief and Happiness, by clicking hereRequest your Awaken Your Happiness Journaling Guide hereSee acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 446 of Grief and Happiness is for anyone who's wished a moment of grief or gratitude could last. Author Erica Gerard Di Bona shares how a typewriter and a thousand letters a year have helped her comfort grieving friends and reconnect with a stranger whose life her note changed. Her candid advice on condolences shows why a letter really is better.In This Episode, You Will Learn:(00:57) Erica's mission to bring back civility, one letter at a time(02:36) How grief after losing her husband led Emily to a year of weekly letters(09:44) Why a letter can reach people carrying hidden grief(10:49) Erica's advice to stop dancing around the word "death"(18:02) Small ways to stay connected — jokes, clippings, and horoscopes(21:02) The letter that resurfaced nine months later and changed a stranger's life(27:23) Erica's "secret weapon" for meetings: typed letters as a UC Santa Cruz "friend raiser"(29:23) What to say — and never say — in a condolence letter(34:14) The century-old letters that revealed hidden family history(39:46) How one letter can turn someone into a lifelong letter writerErica Gerard Di Bona is a lifelong letter writer and author of A Letter Is Better! The Art of Thank You, which makes the case for handwritten notes as tools for connection and healing. A former producer in network news, kids' game shows, and documentaries, she now works as a fundraising consultant for UC Santa Cruz. She types roughly 1,000 letters a year on one of her seven typewriters, connecting her with correspondents like Henry Winkler. Erica lives in Los Angeles with her husband, producer Vin Di Bona, and their daughter.Erica joins Emily to explore letter writing as an antidote to grief and isolation. She shares how her practice has helped her comfort grieving friends, thank strangers for small kindnesses, and stay close to loved ones far away — including a tattoo artist who called nine months after receiving her note to say it pulled him back from despair. She and Emily also swap stories about century-old letters that revealed hidden family history, showing how a letter can outlast the moment it was written. Erica offers guidance on condolence notes, encouraging people to name death plainly and skip empty platitudes in favor of personal memories — framing letter writing as a small act of kindness that can ease someone's grief.Connect with Erica Gerard Di Bona:WebsiteLinkedInInstagramFacebookBook: Erica Gerard Di Bona - A Letter Is Better!: The Art of Thank YouLet's Connect: WebsiteLinkedInFacebookInstagramTwitterPinterestThe Grief and Happiness AllianceBook: Emily Thiroux Threatt - Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The self-care of paying attention to keeping your emotions positive allows you to experience more positivity which in turn lightens your grief.Let's Connect:You can join the Grief and Happiness Alliance which meets weekly on Sundays by clicking hereYou can order the International Best Selling The Grief and Happiness Guide by clicking here.You can order Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief by clicking here at Amazon:You can listen to my podcast, Grief and Happiness, by clicking hereRequest your Awaken Your Happiness Journaling Guide hereSee acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you've ever believed grief and joy can't coexist, episode 444 of Grief and Happiness will change your mind. Cancer survivor Harriet Cabelly shares the mindset that carried her through diagnosis: it's not what happens to you, but what you do with it. Sitting with pain, not rushing past it, is the real path to a life worth living.In This Episode, You Will Learn:(00:03) Introducing Harriet Cabelly and her work in grief, loss, and positive psychology(02:34) Viktor Frankl, logotherapy, and the life-changing lessons of Man's Search for Meaning(04:27) Harriet's cancer diagnosis and choosing not to live as a victim of circumstance(10:58) Post-traumatic growth: how difficulty can become the seed of real change(11:55) "Leaving an imprint in the sand" — redefining legacy and paying it forward(12:44) Building community through small, unplanned acts of connection(18:08) Turning to creativity — handwritten cards and nature photography — as an outlet for grief(24:33) Why Harriet chose a creative arts therapist over a traditional support group(26:40) Confronting society's discomfort with grief and its obsession with quick fixesHarriet Cabelly is a licensed clinical social worker in New York focused on grief, loss, and life transitions. A cancer survivor, she blends positive psychology with Viktor Frankl's logotherapy, studied through his Vienna institute, and founded Rebuild Life Now. She has authored several books, including Light Through Darkness and Your To Die For Life, and works as a speaker and facilitator helping clients hold grief and joy together.In this episode, Harriet reframed grief around one idea: it's not what happens to us, but what we do with it, that shapes our lives. Rather than adopting a victim mentality after her diagnosis, she used it to fuel a mission of paying forward the gift of her life. She and Emily discussed how creative outlets like handwritten cards and nature photography can substitute for talk therapy, and why growth only emerges once pain is fully felt. Harriet also challenged society's discomfort with grief, noting people reach for quick fixes instead of sitting with pain. The conversation closed on her image of "leaving an imprint in the sand," capturing that healing happens through small acts of care.Connect with Harriet Cabelly:WebsiteLinkedInInstagramYouTubeLet's Connect: WebsiteLinkedInFacebookInstagramTwitterPinterestThe Grief and Happiness AllianceBook: Emily Thiroux Threatt - Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What can you do today to make someone else's day? What can you do to make your day?Let's Connect:You can join the Grief and Happiness Alliance which meets weekly on Sundays by clicking hereYou can order the International Best Selling The Grief and Happiness Guide by clicking here.You can order Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief by clicking here at Amazon:You can listen to my podcast, Grief and Happiness, by clicking hereRequest your Awaken Your Happiness Journaling Guide hereSee acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you've ever wondered how one family turned six deaths and a murder into a story of survival, episode 442 of Grief and Happiness is for you. Author Phyllis Karas shares the story behind her memoir Curse of the Blumenthals: a 1935 drunk-driving accident that killed six relatives and the murder her cousin Ronnie committed 18 years later. Her memoir shows how naming our grief, instead of burying it, can hold a family together.In This Episode, You Will Learn:(00:56) Phyllis Karas's introduction as a journalist, professor, and author of Curse of the Blumenthals(02:05) The 1935 drunk-driving accident that killed six members of her family(05:56) Naming the victims and giving them life back through her writing(07:48) Ronnie's birth four months later — a moment of joy after tragedy(12:41) The murder Ronnie committed 18 years after the crash, and the family's decision to stand by him(15:42) Visiting Ronnie in prison for 13 years, and what it taught her about grief(17:23) The hardest parts to write: the police report and the murder itself(20:13) Why readers are drawn to grief stories, and the response to her book signing(21:04) How the family's closeness endured across generations despite the tragedy(22:24) Drunk driving, justice, and what accountability actually looked like(23:29) Ronnie's life after prison, and the 45 years he lived beyond itPhyllis Karas is a journalist, longtime Boston University journalism professor, and author of eleven books, including the New York Times bestseller Brutal: The Untold Story of My Life Inside Whitey Bulger's Irish Mob and The Onassis Woman, the subject of a Dateline NBC special. Her work has appeared in Vogue, Miami Herald, Boston Magazine, and Moment Magazine. Her latest book, and first memoir, Curse of the Blumenthals, traces three generations of tragedy and resilience within her own family.On this episode, Phyllis joins Emily to discuss that memoir: a 1935 drunk-driving accident that killed six relatives, including three children; the 1954 murder committed by her cousin Ronnie, born months after the crash; and her family's decades-long choice to stand by him through prison and a hard life after. She describes the years spent researching old police reports, how grief echoed across generations in her mother's quiet anxieties, and her decision to finally write the story after Ronnie's death in 2012 — turning inherited grief into connection rather than silence or anger.Connect with Phyllis Karas:WebsiteLinkedInFacebookGet Phyllis' books!Let's Connect: WebsiteLinkedInFacebookInstagramTwitterPinterestThe Grief and Happiness AllianceBook: Emily Thiroux Threatt - Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Let's Connect:You can join the Grief and Happiness Alliance which meets weekly on Sundays by clicking hereYou can order the International Best Selling The Grief and Happiness Guide by clicking here.You can order Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief by clicking here at Amazon:You can listen to my podcast, Grief and Happiness, by clicking hereRequest your Awaken Your Happiness Journaling Guide hereSee acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you've ever wondered how a dying loved one's request could become a calling, episode 440 of Grief and Happiness is for you. Ceramic artist Rae Delai shares how a promise to her dying aunt led her to leave nursing and open White Lily Urns, crafting memorial pieces — including a teapot urn for a young woman lost to anorexia and a reef urn that becomes part of the ocean.In This Episode, You Will Learn:(00:55) Rae's path from 30 years in nursing to becoming a full-time ceramic artist(01:27) How her dying aunt's request for an urn led to White Lily Urns(08:30) Why Australian culture — and even most potters — avoid making urns(13:54) The meditative discipline of clay: why you can't create while angry(14:33) How clients find Rae's work and why most of her urns ship overseas(16:38) The personal stories behind her urns, including a dragon urn for a teen who died by suicide(19:00) Designing a custom teapot urn for a young woman who died of anorexia(22:26) Why ceramics are like crystals — and the surprises every kiln firing brings(24:28) How grieving clients choose an urn in the moment, without overthinking it(25:40) The reef-friendly urn Rae created for her own grief, built to become part of a coral reefRae Delai is the ceramic artist behind White Lily Urns, a memorial pottery studio in Atherton, Far North Queensland, Australia. After 30 years as a nurse in intensive care, midwifery, and palliative care, she took up pottery as a creative outlet — and when her dying aunt asked her to make an urn for her ashes, Rae found few handmade options existed in Australia. That gap led her to leave nursing for a full-time business making custom urns, capturing each loved one's story with input from families. She now sells through her website and Etsy as White Lily Urns, shipping worldwide.On the episode, Rae drew on her nursing background and her craft to discuss death, grief, and the comfort of creating something meaningful from loss. She described Australians' general discomfort with death, even among potters, and how nursing taught her to sit with grieving families without absorbing their pain. She shared personal projects: a teapot urn for a young woman who died of anorexia, a dragon-faced urn for a teen who died by suicide, and a reef urn made for her own grief that dissolves into the ocean. She closed on the centeredness clay demands and the realities of running her business alone.Connect with Rae Delai:WebsiteLinkedInInstagramFacebookYouTubeXPinterestLet's Connect: WebsiteLinkedInFacebookInstagramTwitterPinterestThe Grief and Happiness AllianceBook: Emily Thiroux Threatt - Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Let's Connect:You can join the Grief and Happiness Alliance which meets weekly on Sundays by clicking hereYou can order the International Best Selling The Grief and Happiness Guide by clicking here.You can order Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief by clicking here at Amazon:You can listen to my podcast, Grief and Happiness, by clicking hereRequest your Awaken Your Happiness Journaling Guide hereSee acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you've ever felt hijacked by grief at the worst possible moment, Episode 438 of the Grief and Happiness Podcast is for you. Grief guide Sylvia Wolfer reveals why exhaustion, fogginess, and emotional overwhelm are real biological responses to loss — not weakness — and shares the simple scheduling technique that helped her stop being ambushed by grief and finally feel in control. If grief has ever felt bigger than you, this episode will change the way you see it.In This Episode, You Will Learn:(00:50) Sylvia's personal journey through compound and unattended grief (04:55) Why grief research became Sylvia's lifeline — and the two gifts it gave her (05:46) Reclaiming agency: the scheduling technique that puts you back in control of grief (08:14) Why grief never goes away — and why we wouldn't want it to (11:10) What living in Buddhist countries taught Sylvia about impermanence and loss (13:55) How Western culture leaves us unprepared for grief (18:34) The physical reality of grief: what loss does to your brain, body, and energy (22:37) Why hydration and basic body care are powerful emotional tools (25:17) Grief as a wound: why it needs intentional care, not just time (28:11) The power of showing up for grievers — and how small acts of kindness change everythingSylvia Wolfer is a grief guide, mindfulness practitioner, and movement teacher whose work sits at the intersection of neuroscience, mindfulness, and gentle movement. Having lost both parents and two siblings — her father and younger brother before she turned seventeen, and her older brother just before COVID lockdown — she brings profound personal lived experience to her practice. That final loss became a turning point: rather than continue living at the mercy of unattended grief, Sylvia dove into the science of loss and emerged with a framework to help others rebuild steadiness and agency. She offers 1:1 sessions, self-paced courses, and online Pilates, and has been featured across multiple grief-focused platforms worldwide.In this episode, Sylvia shares how immersing herself in grief research gave her two transformative gifts: the reassurance that her responses were entirely normal, and a sense of belonging to a universal human experience. She introduces the practice of grief agency — acknowledging a wave when it rises but consciously choosing when to tend to it, so grief no longer arrives as an ambush. She also explores the physical reality of loss, explaining how grief keeps the body in a state of high alert and why tending to basics like hydration, sleep, and movement is a foundational emotional strategy. Weaving in Buddhist perspectives on impermanence, she reflects on why Westerners are so often blindsided by loss, and closes with a warm validation of community and the life-changing power of not leaving grievers alone in their silence.Connect with Sylvia Wolfer:WebsiteLinkedInInstagramPodcast: Sylvia's VoiceLet's Connect: WebsiteLinkedInFacebookInstagramTwitterPinterestThe Grief and Happiness AllianceBook: Emily Thiroux Threatt - Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I focus on being kind, but now I've realized the importance of receiving as well as giving.Let's Connect:You can join the Grief and Happiness Alliance which meets weekly on Sundays by clicking hereYou can order the International Best Selling The Grief and Happiness Guide by clicking here.You can order Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief by clicking here at Amazon:You can listen to my podcast, Grief and Happiness, by clicking hereRequest your Awaken Your Happiness Journaling Guide hereSee acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you've ever been told to "move on" from grief, Episode 436 of the Grief and Happiness podcast will change how you think about healing forever. Michael Reed, who lost his wife and both daughters in the Gatlinburg wildfire, reveals why the five stages of grief are a myth and shares the moment he finally smiled at a memory before the tears came.In This Episode, You Will Learn:(00:04) Introduction to Michael Reed and his story of loss (01:26) Losing his wife and daughters in the 2016 Gatlinburg wildfire (04:01) Why the five stages of grief are a myth (06:11) The taboo around men expressing grief and the power of vulnerability (07:30) How a late-night Facebook post launched his writing career (08:45) Why all grief — from divorce to empty nesting — is fundamentally the same (10:26) The difference between moving on and moving forward (13:48) The moment he smiled at a memory before the tears came (16:06) What makes Michael a natural writer and the courage it takes to be vulnerable (19:18) How dreams and signs from loved ones keep connection alive (24:30) Healing in your grief — not from it (25:54) Where to find Michael's books and free grief resourcesMichael Reed is an author, speaker, and certified grief coach whose work focuses on grief, psychological adaptation, and long-term healing following traumatic loss. On November 28, 2016, he lost his wife Constance and both daughters, Chloe and Lily, in the wildfire that devastated Gatlinburg, Tennessee — a tragedy that became the catalyst for his life's mission. That journey produced his bestselling book The Million Stages of Grief, which challenges the oversimplified five-stage model and honors the deeply individual nature of loss, followed by The Million Stages of Healing and a children's book, The Owl and the Ladybug. Michael is also a certified grief coach pursuing a degree in Behavioral Science, and serves as president of Emily's Grief and Happiness Alliance nonprofit.In this episode, Michael shares the raw philosophy behind his writing — that grief isn't limited to death, but encompasses any significant loss, and that its universality is precisely what connects us. He recounts how a middle-of-the-night journal entry posted on Facebook sparked his entire authorship career, and introduces his newest book, The Million Stages of Healing, built around the distinction between moving on and moving forward — carrying love for those we've lost into each new day. A turning point he describes is smiling at a photo of his daughter Lily and realizing he had taken his first step toward healing. He speaks openly about vulnerability, signs from loved ones, and the particular stigma men face around expressing grief.Connect with Michael Reed:WebsiteInstagramTikTokBook: Michael Reed - The Million Stages of GriefLet's Connect: WebsiteLinkedInFacebookInstagramTwitterPinterestThe Grief and Happiness AllianceBook: Emily Thiroux Threatt - Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Think about the friends you have in each of these categories and their impacts on your life. Think about renewing some friendships.Let's Connect:You can join the Grief and Happiness Alliance which meets weekly on Sundays by clicking hereYou can order the International Best Selling The Grief and Happiness Guide by clicking here.You can order Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief by clicking here at Amazon:You can listen to my podcast, Grief and Happiness, by clicking hereRequest your Awaken Your Happiness Journaling Guide hereSee acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you've ever felt overwhelmed by grief and wondered how to move through it, Episode 434 of the Grief and Happiness podcast offers something tangible. Day Schildkret shares how the Morning Altars practice emerged from his own devastating loss and has since transformed how thousands of people around the world work with grief, celebration, and change. Through simple acts of gathering natural materials and creating meaningful offerings, Day shows us that beauty and healing don't have to wait until we're ready.In This Episode, You Will Learn:(01:21) What it means to tend to a community and the relationships within it(02:13) How Morning Altars work and the three core tenets of the practice(03:50) How the practice began with Day's father's death and absolute devastation(06:21) The power of nature connection and play from childhood into adulthood(07:27) Why wonder and impermanence matter when you're working through grief(09:14) How creating with your hands becomes a meditation and a way to slow down(10:06) Being fully present with what you're making as a rare gift in today's world(14:46) The seven-step practice: gathering, creating, offering, and letting go(16:15) How Morning Altars work across prisons, schools, memory care, and moreDay Schildkret is an artist, author, and teacher behind the internationally recognized Morning Altars movement, which inspires people to make their lives more beautiful and meaningful through nature, creativity, and ritual. With nearly 100,000 followers on social media and sold-out trainings worldwide, Day has taught workshops and created installations at sites including Google, The 9/11 Memorial Plaza, The Andy Warhol Foundation, Esalen, and the California Academy of Sciences. He is the author of Morning Altars: A 7-Step Practice to Nourish Your Spirit through Nature, Art and Ritual and the upcoming Hello, Goodbye: 75 Rituals for Times of Loss, Celebration and Change. His work has been featured on NBC, CBS, BuzzFeed, and Vice.In this episode, Day Schildkret shares how the Morning Altars practice began after his father's death. Seven months of overwhelming grief led him to gather natural materials and create something that shifted something inside. He challenged himself to make an altar daily for 30 days, and what started as making something pretty became deeply meaningful, each altar telling the story of his loss. Since then, he has trained over 600 practitioners working in 13 countries. Throughout the conversation, Day emphasizes that this work is about reclaiming wonder and understanding impermanence as freedom, not loss. In a world that teaches us to grasp and accomplish, the Morning Altars practice teaches us to gather, create, wonder, and let go.Connect with Day Schildkret:WebsiteInstagramExplore Day's free 7 Days of Wonder course Get Day's books!Let's Connect:WebsiteLinkedInFacebookInstagramTwitterPinterestThe Grief and Happiness AllianceBook: Emily Thiroux Threatt - Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How do you define “Compassion”?Link to Compassion: Davis, CALet's Connect:You can join the Grief and Happiness Alliance which meets weekly on Sundays by clicking hereYou can order the International Best Selling The Grief and Happiness Guide by clicking here.You can order Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief by clicking here at Amazon:You can listen to my podcast, Grief and Happiness, by clicking hereRequest your Awaken Your Happiness Journaling Guide hereSee acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you've ever wondered how grief can become a gateway to self-discovery, Episode 432 of the Grief and Happiness podcast is for you. Author Lori Carlson-Hijuelos shares the story behind A Writing Marriage — a memoir woven together with the final unfinished manuscript of her late husband, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Oscar Hijuelos. Through writing inside a cathedral, Lori finds not happiness in her grief, but something quieter and more powerful: awareness, meaning, and peace.In This Episode, You Will Learn:(01:21) Lori's early love of Spanish and her sense of divine calling(03:55) How a spontaneous walk into a building launched her entire career(05:50) Why imagination matters more than knowledge — and what's lost without it(07:38) A Writing Marriage: the memoir no editor had ever seen before(09:30) Writing inside a cathedral and the spiritual thread through her grief(11:39) Why she wrote a book meant to be a lifelong companion, not a one-time read(21:02) What STEM students can't do — and why literature is the unexpected fix(29:36) Two husbands, a move to Maui, and how the Grief and Happiness podcast was born(33:14) Why Lori doesn't chase happiness in grief — and what she reaches for insteadLori Carlson-Hijuelos is an acclaimed author, editor, translator, and educator devoted to amplifying Ibero-Latin American and Latino voices in the United States. She built her career at the Americas Society in New York City, collaborating with celebrated Latin American writers and diplomats, and went on to publish more than 16 books — including her landmark bilingual anthology Cool Salsa: Bilingual Poems on Growing Up Latino in the U.S. A longtime educator at Duke University, she designs courses that help students discover how literature fosters compassion and human connection. Her latest book, A Writing Marriage, is a genre-defying memoir intertwined with the final unfinished manuscript of her late husband, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Oscar Hijuelos.In this episode, Lori Carlson-Hijuelos shares the story behind A Writing Marriage — a one-of-a-kind book that weaves her own recollections of her marriage to Oscar Hijuelos with his unfinished final manuscript, Blue Antiquity. She reflects on how her path unfolded almost exactly as she had envisioned it at age 13, and speaks to the role of imagination in shaping a meaningful life — a value she has long passed on to her students. On the topic of grief, Lori offers a quietly powerful perspective: that her experience of loss has not been one of happiness exactly, but of profound awareness and hard-won understanding — a peace she continues to seek through writing and through the light she actively reaches for amid the darkness.Connect with Lori Carlson-Hijuelos:WebsiteGet Lori's books!Let's Connect: WebsiteLinkedInFacebookInstagramTwitterPinterestThe Grief and Happiness AllianceBook: Emily Thiroux Threatt - Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Focus on what serves you, what heals you, and your balance will return.Let's Connect:You can join the Grief and Happiness Alliance which meets weekly on Sundays by clicking hereYou can order the International Best Selling The Grief and Happiness Guide by clicking here.You can order Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief by clicking here at Amazon:You can listen to my podcast, Grief and Happiness, by clicking hereRequest your Awaken Your Happiness Journaling Guide hereSee acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you've ever felt pressure to hold it together after loss, Episode 430 of the Grief and Happiness podcast is for you. Widow, author, and mentor Lisa Woolery shares the unfiltered reality of grief — from bank meltdowns to ill-fated dating attempts — and makes a compelling case for why laughter is one of the most powerful healing tools available. Giving yourself permission to be a hot mess, she says, is the first step toward your comeback.In This Episode, You Will Learn:(00:52) From Southern California to Kansas City: the sudden loss that changed everything(03:42) Why most grief books fall short and what Lisa did differently(05:11) Writing funny chapters about grief's most painful moments(07:46) Why laughing without guilt is a powerful grief recovery tool(10:12) Dating as a widow: sharing her lowest moments so others feel less alone(13:22) Emily's story: finding love again after swearing she never would(14:01) The dream that gave Lisa permission to move forward(16:55) Why widows must stop judging each other's grief journeys(18:35) What not to say to a widow — and what actually helps(19:55) You can handle anything, but you don't have to do it all(22:50) Why Lisa keeps saying yes to new adventuresLisa Woolery is a widow, author, and widow mentor based in Kansas City, Missouri, raising two teenagers and three dogs after losing her husband Eric suddenly — just eight months after their family relocated from Southern California. A former Vice President of Public Relations at Wells Fargo, Lisa channeled her grief into The Widow's Comeback, an International Impact Award-winning memoir about her first two years of widowhood, alongside a grief calendar workbook, guided journal, and an active Facebook community for widows.In this episode, Lisa shares why she wrote her memoir with raw honesty and deliberate humor — a direct response to the sugar-coated grief narratives she encountered after Eric's death. From laugh-out-loud chapters about bank meltdowns to candid reflections on the guilt-laden process of dating again, she shows how comedy and self-permission became essential tools in her healing. The conversation closes on Lisa's most powerful takeaway: that she can handle anything, but doesn't have to do everything alone — and that while the "hot mess" phase is real, it doesn't last forever.Connect with Lisa Woolery:WebsiteFacebookInstagramBooks: Lisa Woolery - The Widow's Comeback Series Let's Connect: WebsiteLinkedInFacebookInstagramTwitterPinterestThe Grief and Happiness AllianceBook: Emily Thiroux Threatt - Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Do you get in your own way?Let's Connect:You can join the Grief and Happiness Alliance which meets weekly on Sundays by clicking hereYou can order the International Best Selling The Grief and Happiness Guide by clicking here.You can order Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief by clicking here at Amazon:You can listen to my podcast, Grief and Happiness, by clicking hereRequest your Awaken Your Happiness Journaling Guide hereSee acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you've ever questioned whether beauty can come from the worst moments of your life, Episode 428 of the Grief and Happiness podcast is for you. Widower and author Danny Lesslie shares how losing his wife Raffaella to Stage 4 cancer led him to write their co-authored memoir Thank You, Cancer — and what he discovered in her unedited journals after she was gone. He also opens up about the miraculous "Jesus moments" that carried his family through the unimaginable, and what moving forward — not moving on — can actually look like.In This Episode, You Will Learn:(00:53) Danny's story — Raffaella's five-year cancer battle and their choice to share it(03:21) How writing transforms grief from a "nebulous storm" into clarity(04:49) The two-voice structure of Thank You, Cancer and what Danny found in her journals(08:25) Why Raffaella's voice continues to reach strangers after her death(12:12) Writing as a companion in loneliness — and the grief of finishing the book(13:09) Losing someone "over and over again" — and how those moments shift toward gratitude(17:39) Moving forward vs. moving on — and the shift that signals it's time(24:51) Why building your emotional home in another person leaves you lost after loss(26:13) The "Jesus moments" that carried Danny's family through the unimaginable(29:32) How total loss of control became an unexpected giftDanny Lesslie is an author, speaker, and significance coach whose life was transformed by his wife Raffaella's five-year battle with Stage 4 vulvar cancer. Committed to bringing light from the darkness, they shared their journey publicly — a mission Danny continues today. After losing Raffaella at the end of 2024, he completed the book they always dreamed of writing together: Thank You, Cancer, a two-voice memoir weaving Raffaella's raw, unedited journals alongside his own reflections. Now a widowed father of two young daughters, Danny speaks and coaches on grief and resilience at dannylesslie.co.In this episode, Danny shares how writing became an unexpected bridge — for his own healing and for discovering his wife more deeply through her unedited words after her death. He reflects on losing someone "over and over again" as grief resurfaces through everyday objects and memories, and how those moments have slowly shifted toward gratitude. He also speaks candidly about the "Jesus moments" that sustained his family through financial and medical impossibilities, and how total loss of control became a gift that redirected him toward trusting God's provision. Throughout, Danny offers a compassionate take on the difference between moving on and moving forward — and the quiet internal shift that signals it's time.Connect with Danny Lesslie:WebsiteLinkedInInstagramBook: Danny Lesslie - Thank You, CancerGet your personalized copy here! Let's Connect: WebsiteLinkedInFacebookInstagramTwitterPinterestThe Grief and Happiness AllianceBook: Emily Thiroux Threatt - Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What is the difference for you between mourning and grief?Let's Connect:You can join the Grief and Happiness Alliance which meets weekly on Sundays by clicking hereYou can order the International Best Selling The Grief and Happiness Guide by clicking here.You can order Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief by clicking here at Amazon:You can listen to my podcast, Grief and Happiness, by clicking hereRequest your Awaken Your Happiness Journaling Guide hereSee acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you've ever avoided thinking about death — your own or someone else's — episode 426 of Grief and Happiness is exactly what you need to hear. Death doula and soul coach Julie Wright Halbert joins Emily to challenge everything we've been taught about the end of life, and why dying people deserve the same celebration as newborns. Raw, surprising, and deeply comforting, this conversation will change the way you think about living.In This Episode, You Will Learn:(00:57) From national education attorney to death doula and soul coach (01:52) How death doulas are transforming end-of-life care (04:16) The hidden toll caregiving takes — and why supporters need support too (06:17) Why walking toward death is a gift, not a burden (07:19) How dying people can reclaim their agency (14:16) Why we celebrate births but not the people we're about to lose (18:23) How grief and happiness mirror each other through presence (22:27) Why there is no timeline for grief (23:08) The signs, numbers, and moments that prove love doesn't die (31:46) Why people go silent after a death — and what makes all the difference (35:35) The death doula movement is growing — how you can be part of itJulie Wright Halbert, Esq. is a death doula, transformational soul coach, and national advocate for grief literacy whose work bridges nearly three decades of legal rigor with soul-centered presence. A former Legislative Counsel for the Council of the Great City Schools, she shaped national education policy up to the U.S. Supreme Court level before the sudden loss of her husband to cancer in just three weeks transformed her path entirely. Today she is the founder of Rising Phoenix Life, guiding individuals and families through grief and life transitions, and volunteers as a certified death doula with Tidewell Empath Hospice in Florida. She is also the author of the forthcoming book Divine Ashes Ascending.In this episode, Julie brings lived loss and professional wisdom to a conversation about dying with agency, presence, and love. She and Emily explore the importance of patients using their voice — choosing their environment, their people, and the terms of their final days — and the often-overlooked toll caregiving takes on loved ones. Julie introduces her philosophy of "living and dying awake": being so fully present in life that death can ultimately be met with legacy and celebration rather than fear. She also speaks openly about her continuing spiritual connection to her late husband Jim, and encourages listeners to explore the growing death doula movement as an accessible, compassionate source of support.Connect with Julie Wright Halbert:WebsiteLinkedInInstagramBook: Julie Wright Halbert - Divine Ashes AscendingFree guided meditation by Julie Let's Connect: WebsiteLinkedInFacebookInstagramTwitterPinterestThe Grief and Happiness AllianceBook: Emily Thiroux Threatt - Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You are as young and you act and feel.Let's Connect:You can join the Grief and Happiness Alliance which meets weekly on Sundays by clicking hereYou can order the International Best Selling The Grief and Happiness Guide by clicking here.You can order Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief by clicking here at Amazon:You can listen to my podcast, Grief and Happiness, by clicking hereRequest your Awaken Your Happiness Journaling Guide hereSee acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you've ever wondered how love could deepen in the face of the unthinkable, episode 424 of Grief and Happiness is for you. David Marsden shares the remarkable story of his late-in-life relationship with journalist Alicia Shepard — a partnership that survived two stage 4 cancer diagnoses and a role reversal between patient and caregiver that brought them closer than ever. Through loss, David reveals how asking for help and finding gratitude in the smallest moments can transform even the hardest chapters into something profoundly beautiful.In This Episode, You Will Learn:(01:00) David's stage 4 melanoma survival and late-in-life love story(02:25) A first date on April Fool's Day that began and ended eleven years later(03:49) Why the publisher dropped the book the day Lisa died — and David's refusal to let it go(08:53) Why Lisa packed up and followed David to war-torn Afghanistan(10:11) Cycling Iowa, visiting Alaska, and hiking the Grand Canyon with stage 4 lung cancer(11:35) Back-to-back diagnoses and swapping roles between patient and caregiver(13:30) In Lisa's own words: when a cancer diagnosis turns your world upside down(15:35) Why asking for help changes everything during serious illness(17:16) Finding gratitude in shrinking walks as the end drew near(19:31) How the book carries Lisa's voice forward for cancer patients and familiesDavid Marsden is a stage 4 melanoma survivor and the widower of award-winning journalist Alicia C. Shepard, former NPR ombudsman and contributor to the New York Times and Washington Post. The two met on Match.com in 2012, embarking on a late-in-life love story that took them from cycling across Iowa to working side by side in Afghanistan and hiking the Grand Canyon — all while navigating back-to-back stage 4 cancer diagnoses. After Alicia passed away on April 1, 2023 — eleven years to the day of their first date — David honored her dying wish by shepherding her memoir to publication with Bloomsbury. He contributed the epilogue, with a foreword by Alicia's son, filmmaker Cutter Hodierne. The Luckiest Unlucky Couple: A Medical Love Story is available now, with proceeds supporting cancer research and a foundation funding fellowships for women in journalism.In this episode, David opens up about the emotional terrain of loving someone through illness — and being loved through it yourself. He reflects on the shock of their sequential diagnoses, the profound role reversal of moving between patient and caregiver, and the unexpected gifts that came with both: learning to ask for help, leaning into community, and finding deep gratitude in the smallest moments. He also shares the story of getting Alicia's book across the finish line after her passing — a labor of love that became, as he describes it, a way to continue the relationship and honor everything she wanted to say.Connect with David Marsden:Book: Alicia C. Shepard - The Luckiest Unlucky Couple: A Medical Love StoryLet's Connect: WebsiteLinkedInFacebookInstagramTwitterPinterestThe Grief and Happiness AllianceBook: Emily Thiroux Threatt - Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What signs that you experience remind you of your loved ones.Let's Connect:You can join the Grief and Happiness Alliance which meets weekly on Sundays by clicking hereYou can order the International Best Selling The Grief and Happiness Guide by clicking here.You can order Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief by clicking here at Amazon:You can listen to my podcast, Grief and Happiness, by clicking hereRequest your Awaken Your Happiness Journaling Guide hereSee acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you've ever turned to creativity to make sense of loss, episode 422 of the Grief and Happiness podcast is for you. Author and grief specialist Laing F. Rikkers shares how losing her sister during the pandemic led her to a simple but powerful healing framework: walk it, talk it, write it. Through morning pages and botanical poetry, she transformed her grief into an award-winning book — and shows how even the most personal pain can carry something universal.In This Episode, You Will Learn:(00:53) Introducing Laing Rikkers and her book Morning Leaves(03:17) How losing her sister and the pandemic sparked a creative awakening(06:08) Poem reading: "Cactus" — on loneliness and self-protection(07:16) Why loneliness is the grief emotion nobody warns you about(07:58) Poem reading: "Lemon Tree" — on generosity and resilience(09:00) How nature became the language of her healing(13:42) Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way and the power of morning pages(16:27) Walk it, talk it, write it: a three-step framework for healing(17:41) How creativity switches off the inner critic and restores rest(25:19) Why natural sunlight is the most powerful antidepressant(26:17) How stargazing can restore your sense of meaning and purposeLaing F. Rikkers is a business advisor, executive coach, award-winning author, and certified Grief Support Specialist based in Southern California. After 30 years in corporate leadership — spanning human resources at Hess and Walt Disney, and two decades in private equity at HealthpointCapital — she channeled personal loss into a profound creative journey. Her book Morning Leaves: Cultivating a Life of Beauty, Meaning, and Joy, a collection of botanical poetry and original paintings born from grief, won multiple awards in its first edition and is now out in an expanded second edition featuring nearly 100 original paintings.In this episode, Laing shares how the sudden loss of her younger sister in 2019, compounded by pandemic isolation, became the catalyst for that awakening. Drawing on Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way, she began practicing morning pages, allowing grief, loneliness, and reflection to surface through writing — eventually shaping into botanical poems that use nature as metaphor for loss. She reads two of those poems and offers a simple framework for navigating grief: walk it, talk it, write it. She and Emily also explore how deeply personal writing can carry unexpected universality, with readers often finding their own stories reflected in Laing's words.Connect with Laing F. Rikkers:WebsiteInstagramSubstackLinkedInGet Laing F. Rikkers books!Let's Connect: WebsiteLinkedInFacebookInstagramTwitterPinterestThe Grief and Happiness AllianceBook: Emily Thiroux Threatt - Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What do you have planned for the rest of your life?Let's Connect:You can join the Grief and Happiness Alliance which meets weekly on Sundays by clicking hereYou can order the International Best Selling The Grief and Happiness Guide by clicking here.You can order Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief by clicking here at Amazon:You can listen to my podcast, Grief and Happiness, by clicking hereRequest your Awaken Your Happiness Journaling Guide hereSee acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you've ever felt torn between honoring your grief and allowing yourself to be happy, Episode 420 of the Grief and Happiness podcast is for you. Author Steve Beal Sr. shares how years of visiting aging family members and simply showing up became the foundation of his book Generation Jumping. Through storytelling and faith, Steve makes a compelling case that sorrow and happiness are not opposites — and that the stories we carry from those we've lost are a legacy worth telling before time runs out.In This Episode, You Will Learn:(00:57) Steve Beal Sr.'s journey from family storyteller to published author(04:06) The race against time: why Steve urgently wrote down his family's stories(07:43) How asking the right questions can bring a loved one's memories back to life(09:21) The origin of "Generation Jumping" and what it means to cross generational lines(12:32) The four pillars of the book and why urgency is the most important one(16:49) Why different memories of the same moment are something to celebrate, not correct(19:22) The unexpected reward of simply showing up for the people you love(22:02) Steve's first encounter with grief — and why a funeral felt more like a family reunion(25:10) "Sorrow is not a waste": how hope transforms grief without erasing itSteve Beal Sr. is an author, speaker, and storyteller whose debut book, Generation Jumping: Losing Those Who Are Not Lost, grew organically from decades of notes and conversations with aging family members in New Brunswick, Canada. Shaped by a deeply rooted Christian faith and a lifetime of witnessing loss — from his grandmother's joyful 1985 funeral to walking alongside his father in his final years — Steve writes with a humble, pastoral voice about legacy, redemption, and hope. A self-described storyteller at heart, he spent 25 years writing sports articles to lift up young athletes before channeling that same spirit into honoring the ordinary people who lived through extraordinary moments.In this episode, Steve shares how those years of intentional presence with his elders — asking questions, recording memories, and making trips his mother couldn't make alone — naturally became the book he never set out to write. He reflects on coining the term "generation jumping" at a family member's deathbed, when he found himself the only younger person in a room full of elders who had warmly welcomed him into their circle. He speaks candidly about the urgency of capturing family stories before they disappear, and about the unexpected difficulty of writing about his late father nearly a decade after losing him. Throughout, Steve articulates a faith-rooted perspective that mirrors the spirit of this podcast: that grief and happiness are not opposites, but coexist authentically — and that hope, not the absence of sorrow, is what ultimately redeems loss.Connect with Steve Beal Sr. :WebsiteFacebookLinkedInBook: Steve Beal Sr. - Generation Jumping: Losing Those Who Are Not LostLet's Connect: WebsiteLinkedInFacebookInstagramTwitterPinterestThe Grief and Happiness AllianceBook: Emily Thiroux Threatt - Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I'm sure we have all had times when we don't feel our best for one reason or another. When that happens, we have a choice. We can remain sad, or grumpy, or just feeling bad, or we can figure out how to do something about it.Let's Connect:You can join the Grief and Happiness Alliance which meets weekly on Sundays by clicking hereYou can order the International Best Selling The Grief and Happiness Guide by clicking here.You can order Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief by clicking here at Amazon:You can listen to my podcast, Grief and Happiness, by clicking hereRequest your Awaken Your Happiness Journaling Guide hereSee acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you've ever made a decision out of panic — about your health, your grief, or your life — episode 418 of Grief and Happiness is essential listening. Author and life coach Mia Godfrey shares how losing her father, her first husband, and her sister across three decades left her without the tools to cope — until a therapist handed her a journal and changed everything. From the realities of caregiving to a terrifying liver diagnosis she refused to rush, Mia's story is a masterclass in never letting fear make your decisions for you.In This Episode, You Will Learn:(00:55) Mia Godfrey: author, life coach, keynote speaker, youngest of ten from Romania(01:18) Three devastating losses across three decades — and no tools to grieve(05:35) Why she left Romania: addiction, shame, and a love story(07:46) Growing up under communism and her father's survival lessons on the Danube(10:50) Her sister: 13 months apart, inseparable — and why her loss broke everything(11:26) What 11 months of caregiving taught her about grace and self-neglect(14:43) Why honoring a loved one's treatment decisions matters — even when it's hard(17:23) The end-of-life conversations she refused to have — and what it cost her(19:30) How to navigate conflicting medical advice and advocate for yourself(22:41) A terrifying liver diagnosis and why she refused to let fear decide(33:58) On living guilt-free while grief and happiness coexistMia Godfrey is a certified life coach, Bible counselor, keynote speaker, and author originally from Romania, where she grew up the youngest of ten children under communist rule. She came to the United States in 2008 through marriage, and over the past two decades has built a career spanning leadership, talent acquisition, and her own coaching practice, Scribbled Pages International Life Coaching. Her debut memoir, Buried, Not Broken: A Memoir of Survival, Sisterhood, and Starting Over, is the through-line of this conversation — a raw, cross-cultural account of loss, caregiving, and the unexpected healing that came from putting her story on the page.In the episode, Mia traces a lifetime of grief she never had the tools to process: the death of her father at 18, the sudden loss of her first husband at 42 (whose end-of-life conversations she shut down, leaving her financially and emotionally unprepared), and the 11-month caregiving journey that ended with her sister's death from ovarian cancer in 2023 — the loss that finally broke her open. It was her therapist who suggested journaling, a practice Mia resisted before eventually turning those pages into her memoir. She speaks with hard-won clarity about what caregiving taught her: that self-neglect is not devotion (she compromised her own health so severely that she faced a frightening liver diagnosis shortly after returning home), that patients must be allowed to make their own treatment decisions, and that panic is the worst basis for any medical choice. Her own health scare — which resolved after months of conflicting diagnoses and a deliberate pause to research rather than react — anchors her central message: weigh all options, and never let fear make the decision for you.Connect with Mia Godfrey:WebsiteBook: Mia Godfrey - Buried, Not BrokenLet's Connect: WebsiteLinkedInFacebookInstagramTwitterPinterestThe Grief and Happiness AllianceBook: Emily Thiroux Threatt - Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What are you spending time waiting for?Let's Connect:You can join the Grief and Happiness Alliance which meets weekly on Sundays by clicking hereYou can order the International Best Selling The Grief and Happiness Guide by clicking here.You can order Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief by clicking here at Amazon:You can listen to my podcast, Grief and Happiness, by clicking hereRequest your Awaken Your Happiness Journaling Guide hereSee acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you've ever felt drained by other people's negativity or wondered whether happiness is something you have to earn, episode 416 of Grief and Happiness is for you. Self-mastery coach Michele Phillips — known as "The Light Lady" — reveals why happiness comes before success, and shares simple tools to quiet your inner critic and reclaim your energy. From a smile that changed a stranger's life three years later to writing letters to your future self, this one is quietly transformative.In This Episode, You Will Learn:(00:55) Why happiness comes before success(02:26) The "pom poms" story: protecting your energy without dimming it(03:21) How to support others without absorbing their low energy(04:29) The smiling experiment that changed a stranger's life(08:58) Why micro-moments of connection matter more than we think(11:08) "Energizio": directing your energy toward what you actually want(14:03) Meet Wanda and Grace: naming your inner voices to take back control(17:02) Why journaling is Michele's most powerful tool(20:05) The case for putting down your phone and picking up a pen(21:39) Personal energy alignment: accessing your own flow state(22:41) How journaling helps you process grief and rediscover joy(26:09) The goddess gathering: writing a letter to your future selfMichele Phillips is a self-mastery coach, corporate trainer, and author known to her clients as "The Light Lady." As President of Key Performance — a New York State Certified Women-Owned Business she founded in 1998 — she has spent over two decades coaching leaders at Fortune 500 companies including Pfizer, Verizon, and The PGA. She holds a Master's in Organizational Development from Fordham University, a certification in Positive Psychology, and is the author of Happiness is a Habit and her latest, Energize Your Happiness: Tap into Your Personal Energy and Shape Your Destiny. Her core belief: happiness doesn't come after success. It comes before it.That conviction anchors everything Michele shared with Emily here. She introduced "energizio" — a word she coined for energy directed intentionally toward what you want rather than what you don't — and personified our inner voices as the critical "Wanda" and the wise "Grace," making the inner work both accessible and fun. The conversation wove in the power of micro-moments: a genuine smile, a kind gesture, the choice not to absorb someone else's low energy. And Michele closed with a passionate case for handwritten journaling as the gateway to personal energy alignment — a flow state she believes is available to all of us — including a moving exercise where participants write letters to the women they intend to become a year from now.Connect with Michele Phillips:WebsiteLinkedInFacebookYouTubeBooksPodcast: Write Your OutcomeLet's Connect: WebsiteLinkedInFacebookInstagramTwitterPinterestThe Grief and Happiness AllianceBook: Emily Thiroux Threatt - Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What brings you happiness? Try expecting to be happy and see where that takes you. Let's Connect:You can join the Grief and Happiness Alliance which meets weekly on Sundays by clicking hereYou can order the International Best Selling The Grief and Happiness Guide by clicking here.You can order Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief by clicking here at Amazon:You can listen to my podcast, Grief and Happiness, by clicking hereRequest your Awaken Your Happiness Journaling Guide hereSee acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you've ever wondered whether grief is something you get over — or simply learn to carry — episode 414 of the Grief and Happiness podcast is for you. Poet and survivor Sarah Hanson reframes grief not as something to be fixed, but as a scar that proves you survived — and shares why still sharing "cosmic jokes" with her late best friend is one of grief's greatest gifts.In This Episode, You Will Learn:(00:52) Sarah's journey as a poet and trauma survivor(01:41) Why trauma made poetry the only way to tell her story(03:10) How to tell hard stories without re-traumatizing your reader(04:29) Why everyone is grieving — and why forgetting that matters(07:56) Why people fear talking about grief — and why they shouldn't(08:41) Sarah's honest guide to navigating early (12:46) Cosmic jokes and staying connected to those we've lost(15:01) Why the most meaningful objects left behind are never the obvious ones(19:57) Why getting grief down on paper — even imperfectly — helps(22:20) The power of haiku for overwhelming feelings(25:12) How joy quietly grows back in the grief garden(29:06) Fragmented memory, complex PTSD, and the power of writing it downSarah Hanson is a Minneapolis-based author, poet, and truth-teller whose work sits at the intersection of trauma, resilience, and the ongoing journey back to oneself. Her debut memoir-in-verse, Conjuring the Hurricane: The Best Way to Save Your Life Is Any Way You Can (April 2026), weaves together stories of domestic violence, childhood trauma, grief, and hard-won healing — earning praise from Elizabeth Gilbert, among others. A graduate of the University of Chicago with a Master of Arts, Sarah writes with the candor of someone who has walked through the storm and wants to show others the way out. In this episode, Sarah brings the perspective of a survivor and poet to a conversation about grief, healing, and the transformative power of writing. She explains why she chose the nonlinear structure of poetry over traditional memoir — trauma fractures memory in ways that resist linear storytelling, and the form allowed her to honor emotional truth without getting tangled in factual precision. She also offers a tender reframe of healing: rather than expecting to recover as though the wound never happened, she encourages listeners to understand they will heal with the scar — carrying both the proof of survival and the new self built around it. Sarah and Emily find deep common ground on journaling and poetry as grief tools, with Sarah championing longhand writing and poetry as particularly accessible mediums for people in pain.Connect with Sarah Hanson:WebsiteThreadsInstagramSubstackLinkedInBook: Sarah Hanson - Conjuring the HurricaneLet's Connect: WebsiteLinkedInFacebookInstagramTwitterPinterestThe Grief and Happiness AllianceBook: Emily Thiroux Threatt - Loving and Living Your Way Through Grief Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.