The Leftover Pieces: Suicide Loss Conversations

Jaksot

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  No Speeches, No Platitudes: What to Say After Suicide Loss with Shelby Forsythia 30.07.2026 57min

  Words matter. After suicide loss, the things people say—or do not say—can either soften the loneliness or deepen the pain. Grievers are often met with platitudes, awkward silence, spiritual bypassing, invasive questions, or comments that unintentionally place blame where love and compassion are needed most. In this episode of The Leftover Pieces: Suicide Loss Conversations, Melissa welcomes Shelby Forsythia back to the podcast for a full-circle conversation about grief, language, and what it ...
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  Grief in Everyday Life: When Child Loss Shows Up in Ordinary Moments 20.07.2026 36min

  Leave me a voicemail here: 🎙 Leave me a message Long-term grief after child loss does not only show up on birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, or the obviously hard days. Sometimes grief appears in the middle of ordinary life — in a song, a smell, a number, a place, a memory, a show, a laugh, or a moment no one else would understand. In this episode of Down the Rabbit Hole, Melissa reflects on how child loss continues to live beside us in everyday moments. Not always as a breakdown. Somet...
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  When You Don’t Trust Yourself Anymore: Guilt and Motherhood After Child Loss 06.07.2026 34min

  After child loss by suicide, many grieving mothers do not only miss their child — they also stop trusting themselves. In this episode of Down the Rabbit Hole, Melissa explores one of the most under-talked-about parts of long-term grief after the loss of a child by suicide: the collapse of self-trust. This is not only about early grief guilt. This episode looks at what can happen later, when guilt becomes woven into identity, motherhood, self-worth, and the way a grieving mother sees herself. ...
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  Legacy After Child Loss by Suicide: What Alex Taught Me About Carrying Love Forward 30.06.2026 46min

  After child loss by suicide, legacy can become a bridge from survival into connection, meaning, and carrying love forward. In this episode of Down the Rabbit Hole, Melissa reads her chapter from Because They Lived: Memories & Stories of Amazing Kids Lost to Suicide - As Told by the Moms They Left Behind --Volume 7, The chapter is titled “The Seventh Thread: What Alex Taught Me About Legacy.” This episode is part reflection, part chapter reading, and part invitation to think differently ab...
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  I Survived, But I Don’t Know Who I Am: Identity After the Loss of a Child by Suicide 22.06.2026 21min

  What happens when you survive the earliest years of grief, but no longer recognize yourself? In this episode of Down the Rabbit Hole, Melissa explores the identity crisis many grieving mothers face after the loss of a child by suicide — especially once the earliest survival years begin to shift and the deeper “now what?” questions rise. This episode explores: why survival takes so much emotional, physical, and nervous system energywhy identity may not be accessible in early griefthe painful r...
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  Grief on Screen: What TV and Movies Reveal About Child Loss and Long-Term Grief 19.06.2026 35min

  🎙 Leave me a message: Share a question, your story, or your person’s name for a future episode → theleftoverpieces.com/voicemail Email me at: [email protected] Sometimes fictional grief stories give us just enough distance to see our own grief more clearly. It can hold up a mirror of sorts. In this episode of Down the Rabbit Hole, Melissa reflects on several recent shows and films that portray different layers of grief, loss, family systems, unanswered questions, and what it ...
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  Identifying a Potential New Risk Factor for Youth Suicide | A Conversation with Paul D. Tieger 27.05.2026 23min

  In this brief but so important Bonus "Mini-sode", Melissa sits down with internationally recognized personality expert and author Paul D. Tieger to discuss groundbreaking new research exploring a possible connection between inborn personality type and increased suicide risk in young people. Take the Survey: CLICK HERE TO TAKE SURVEY This first-of-its-kind study is seeking participation specifically from parents who have lost a child to suicide. The goal is to better understand whether certai...
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  20 Years After Suicide Loss: Tracy Oeser on Grief, Healing & Survival to Service 25.05.2026 1t 10min

  In this deeply honest conversation about suicide loss and long-term grief, Melissa sits down with Tracy Oeser, MSPsy — suicide loss survivor, grief educator, bereavement coach, and founder of Journey Thru Grief. Nearly 20 years after the suicide loss of her daughter Chelsie, Tracy shares the reality of grieving a child to suicide, what healing actually looks like over time, and how survivors can learn to carry grief while rebuilding life after devastating loss. Together, Melissa and Tracy tal...
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  Survival, Hope, Healing… Then What?: Why Grief Changes Years After Child Loss by Suicide 18.05.2026 16min

  What (actually) happens after survival? In this episode of Down the Rabbit Hole, Melissa speaks honestly about the part of grief few people prepare grieving mothers for — the “now what?” space that often emerges years after child loss and suicide loss. After the shock fades, the anniversaries pass, and the world seems to move forward, many mothers quietly find themselves facing something deeper: identity loss, self-trust collapse, nervous system exhaustion, and the complicated reality of lear...
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  Mother’s Day After Child Loss: If I’m Telling the Truth 10.05.2026 14min

  Mother’s Day after child loss can feel impossibly complicated. In this episode of Down the Rabbit Hole, Melissa speaks honestly about the layered reality of motherhood after suicide loss—the grief, the love, changing family dynamics, and the truth that this day never feels the same again. 💜 In this episode: Why Mother’s Day changes forever after child loss The duality of gratitude and grief How later grief lands differently than the early years Navigating complic...
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  Do We Ever Stop Grieving?: Life After Suicide Loss and the Truth No One Tells You 02.04.2026 25min

  Do we ever stop grieving after losing a child to suicide? In this episode, we go 'down the rabbit hole' to explore the reality of long-term grief after suicide loss and what happens after the initial survival years. Many grieving mothers find themselves asking “what now?” after the first few years, when support fades but the grief remains. This episode introduces a new way of understanding grief—not as something to overcome, but something we learn to live with as we rebuild our id...
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  When the Mind Breaks: A Mother, A Doctor, and the Reality of Psychosis 24.03.2026 48min

  In this episode, I’m joined by Colleen Kraft—a pediatrician of 36 years and a mother of three—who shares the story of her son Tim, who died by suicide in February of 2022 at the age of 31. Tim’s journey included late-onset schizophrenia, beginning with early psychosis in his late twenties. Together, we explore what it looks like to love someone through serious mental illness, the challenges families face within the mental health system, and the difficult reality of navigating care when answer...
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  Year Ten of Grief: A Quiet Return and the Bridges We Build 15.03.2026 19min

  A Quiet Return: Ten Years of Grief and the Bridges We Build After an unexpected, unplanned two-month pause, Melissa returns to The Leftover Pieces Podcast with a quiet and honest reflection on what it means to reach the ten-year mark after losing her son Alex to suicide. So, as she says, this wasn’t a planned break. But as the calendar turned toward a full decade of living without her child, something in Melissa needed to slow down, reflect, and listen more closely to what this next season of...
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  Still Here: A New Year’s Eve Reflection 31.12.2025 7min

  A daily December series offering tender, truthful support for surviving the holidays after suicide loss — with grief, grace, & gentle company. Get THE Leftover Pieces APP & don't miss anything! 👉 The Leftover Pieces App This is December 31 — Welcome, Fellow Griever New Year’s Eve can be heavy for grievers — a reminder that time keeps moving, even when your heart resists. Today’s I offer a quiet companionship with a longer reflection & an original New Year’s Eve poem, honoring surv...
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  Journaling as a Lifeline After Suicide Loss: Reflection, Healing, and Support 30.12.2025 52min

  In this episode of The Leftover Pieces; Suicide Loss Conversations, I’m joined by Sean Dadashi to explore how journaling can support healing after suicide loss. We talk about why journaling often becomes a lifeline for grievers, how reflective practices help after traumatic loss, and why having accessible tools for processing grief matters — especially in the aftermath of a death by suicide. (P.S... I use and love this app!) Sean shares his own lived experience with depression and suici...
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  Looking Back Without Judgment: Allowing Space and Grace 29.12.2025 3min

  A daily December series offering tender, truthful support for surviving the holidays after suicide loss — with grief, grace, and gentle company. Get THE Leftover Pieces APP & don't miss anything! 👉 The Leftover Pieces App This is December 29 — Welcome, Fellow Griever Honoring Survival — A Daily Journal Prompt: “What did it take for me to make it through this year?” Today’s Reflection As the year winds down, today’s episode offers a compassionate way to look back — without judgment, compa...
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  Sunday Softening: Letting the Season Settle 28.12.2025 2min

  A daily December series offering tender, truthful support for surviving the holidays after suicide loss — with grief, grace, and gentle company. Get THE Leftover Pieces APP & don't miss anything! 👉 The Leftover Pieces App This is December 28 — Welcome, Fellow Griever Sunday Softening — A Daily Journal Prompt: “What would it feel like to soften my expectations of myself today?” Today’s Reflection As the holidays fade and the year nears its end, today’s episode offers permission to slow do...
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  The Quiet Weekend: Letting Stillness Be Enough 27.12.2025 3min

  A daily December series offering tender, truthful support for surviving the holidays after suicide loss — with grief, grace, and gentle company. Get THE Leftover Pieces APP & don't miss anything! 👉 The Leftover Pieces App This is December 27 — Welcome, Fellow Griever Letting Stillness Be Enough — A Daily Journal Prompt: “What might become possible if I allow this weekend to be slower than usual?” Today’s Reflection The space between Christmas and the new year can feel disorienting for gr...
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  After the Day: When the Body Finally Exhales 26.12.2025 3min

  A daily December series offering tender, truthful support for surviving the holidays after suicide loss — with grief, grace, and gentle company. Get THE Leftover Pieces APP & don't miss anything! 👉 The Leftover Pieces App This is December 26 — Welcome, Fellow Griever After the Exhale — A Daily Journal Prompt: “What does my body need today as the intensity of the season begins to ease?” Today’s Reflection After the holidays, many grievers experience an emotional and physical drop. Today’s...
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  Christmas Day: Letting the Day Be What It Is 25.12.2025 3min

  A daily December series offering tender, truthful support for surviving the holidays after suicide loss — with grief, grace, and gentle company. Get THE Leftover Pieces APP & don't miss anything! 👉 The Leftover Pieces App This is December 25 — Welcome, Fellow Griever Letting the Day Be — A Daily Journal Prompt: “What is today actually like for me — not what it’s supposed to be?” Today’s Reflection Christmas Day can hold love, grief, memory, and exhaustion all at once. Today’s reflection ...