As I Live and Grieve®
It’s time for grief to come out of the basement, or wherever we have stuffed it to avoid talking about it. When you suffer a loss you need support, comfort, and a safe place to heal. What you are experiencing is painful but normal, unique but similar, surreal but very, very real. As grief advocates we understand and want to provide support, knowledge and comfort as you continue to live and grieve. Host, Kathy Gleason; Producer, Kelly Keck. www.asiliveandgrieve.com
As I Live and Grieve®
The Positive Widow - Waves of Grief
When Christina Napoleon lost her husband to cancer while raising their six-year-old daughter, she found herself without a roadmap. A successful finance professional accustomed to checklists and clear directives, she suddenly faced the disorienting reality of grief with no instruction manual. This experience—followed by the losses of her mother and father—eventually led her to a profound moment of decision at the beach, watching waves crash against the shoreline.
"Those waves are just like grief waves," Christina shares, describing the pivotal moment she decided she no longer wanted to remain "at the bottom of the darkest ocean floor." Instead, she committed to learning how to swim through her grief and find light again—not just for herself, but for her daughter who needed her mother back.
Christina's journey from corporate finance to certified grief educator and coach reveals powerful insights about widow's fog, the challenges of decision-making during grief, and the importance of incremental healing. Her innovative "Power of One" approach began with just one minute of walking each morning, gradually expanding to thirty minutes as she slowly reconnected with the world around her.
Now the author of "The Positive Widow" and founder of a 10,000-member Facebook community, Christina shares why traditional grief counseling often falls short for widows, how unprocessed grief eventually demands attention, and why finding the right support makes all the difference. She explains that moving forward with joy doesn't mean leaving loved ones behind—we can experience both gratitude and grief simultaneously as we rebuild our lives after devastating loss.
Ready to transform your grief journey? Explore Christina's book, coaching programs, and free grief guides designed specifically for widows navigating life after loss.
Contact:
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To Reach Christina:
Email: thepositivewidow@outlook.com
Website: www.thepositivewidow.com
Social Media: thepositivewidow on all platforms
Credits:
Music by Kevin MacLeod
Copyright 2020, by As I Live and Grieve
The views expressed by guests are their own and their appearance on the program does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent.
Welcome to as I Live and Grieve, a podcast that tells the truth about how hard this is. We're glad you joined us today. We know how hard it is to lose someone you love and how well-intentioned friends and family try so hard to comfort us. We created this podcast to provide you with comfort, knowledge and support. We are grief advocates, not professionals, not licensed therapists. We are you.
Speaker 2:Hi everyone. Welcome back again to another episode of as I Live and Grieve. Thanks so much everyone. Last time I said y'all. I tried hard not to do that this time. But thanks everyone for tuning in. Whether you tune in every week or just hop around the different episodes doesn't matter to me. What matters to me is that you've taken the time out of your day, out of your schedule to give a listen, and I appreciate that. Today Got a really neat guest. Today We've already decided we're probably best friends, even though we just met moments ago. With me today is Christina Napoleon. Thanks, christina, for joining us today.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much for having me. It's such an honor to be here with you tonight.
Speaker 2:Oh, thanks, it's our honor. And also with me is my sidekick Kelly. Hey, y'all. Oh, so she did the y'all, but she really does live down south. She lives in Texas. I'm still a Yankee. Okay, Christina, to get us started, could you just share with our listeners a little bit about your background? Who is Christina?
Speaker 3:Thank you for asking. So my background is very interesting. I have 25 plus years in finance. But then when I lost my husband to cancer and my daughter was only six years old, I came from a world of finance where I went into the office in the morning, my assistant gave me a checklist and I knew exactly what I needed to check off before I could leave for the day. But the night that my husband passed away, nobody gave me a checklist, nobody told me what I needed to do, the very first steps as I entered widowhood, as I entered solo mamahood. So I decided to make it a mission to learn as much as I could about grief and I left the corporate world and left the finance world and entered the world of healing and I immersed myself in three years of grief education, training, grief coaching, and I now have a private Facebook group for widows and I do widow grief relief coaching. I wrote a book. The book the positive widow is found on Amazon. That is where I found my healing.
Speaker 3:I was at a place in my life where I was at the beach because I live in Florida, and this was after I lost my husband. I then lost my mother and then I lost my father and all of a sudden I lost my identity. I was no longer a wife and now I was no longer a daughter. I didn't know who I was, and I can remember the exact morning where I dropped my daughter off and I drove right to the beach and I just wanted to give up. The world was so dark. I would drop her off at school and I would go back home and I would put the comforters over my head, close the curtains and then I would just hold his picture in my hands, spray it with his favorite cologne, wear his favorite white Hanes t-shirt, and I did not know how to get out of bed that morning when I went to the beach, I wanted to give up and I kept.
Speaker 2:I'm getting emotional. Sorry, that's okay, we'll cry right along with you. Don't do that thing.
Speaker 3:I kept walking and watching those waves crash against the shoreline and I kept thinking, wow, those waves are just like the grief waves. That morning I couldn't even pinpoint what it was that made me feel so griefy that I had to drive to the beach. I needed to catch my breath, get some fresh air. But I realized in that moment that I no longer wanted to stay at the bottom of that darkest ocean floor. I made a decision right then and there, that I wanted to learn how to swim through those brief waves and find the light again in my life. Because, if you think about it, my daughter didn't just lose her daddy to cancer, that's right. She lost me, that's right that fun, loving, carefree mama who would take her to ballet class and go out to McDonald's. I was riddled with, crippled with anxiety that I couldn't even get in the car and take her to McDonald's, take her to ballet classes. I just wanted to stay in bed and hide in the darkness and shut the world off. But that morning I made the decision she needed her mommy. I too wanted to find hope again, I wanted to find healing, I wanted to find light, and that's when I decided I was going to immerse myself in everything I could grab my hands on regarding grief. And then I became.
Speaker 3:I didn't know I was going to immerse myself for three years in grief education and I decided to become a grief coach and started my own Facebook group. I have over 10,000 followers and members Facebook group. I have over 10,000 followers and members and it's just been beautiful. But the biggest healing was when I wrote my book and it took me a long time to write the positive widow and it is just. It came from my heart and I share some of my own stories. So widows don't feel like what they're going through. They're doing it all by themselves and they're going crazy. But I also share the healing tools that I developed and created and reflection questions and self-care and grief education all within my book.
Speaker 3:And when I wrote my book I understood widow's fog, how it just holds you back from making simple decisions. So I knew that if I wrote this book, the chances of anyone reading it from the front to back would be very slim, because the widow's box, that's right, yep. So I made sure that there's a table of contents and I call it a widow's wisdom box. They can pull out what they need from the widow's wisdom box. Maybe they're suffering with anxiety that day, like oh wait, christina wrote about that. Or maybe they're having panic attacks Christina wrote about that. Or maybe you know what Christina said something about grief and gratitude and how she did not know how to find it for a long time. And I just don't feel any grief and gratitude in my heart today. How did she start to find it for a long time? And I just don't feel any grief and gratitude in my heart today. How did she start to find it? They can pull that out of the widow's wisdom box and go right to the table of contents.
Speaker 2:Wow, so much of what you've said. I'm trying to tuck it into different corners of my brain and my mind because I have ordered a copy of your book. I'm waiting for it to get to my doorstep, but I can't wait now to go through the pages I know. First of all, I have to tell you I love the word greasy, because first time I've heard it. But I love it. I'm going to be using it now and I will credit you for that.
Speaker 3:Thank you. I see it all the time and it probably started with my daughter.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. Now how many years has it been since you've lost your husband?
Speaker 3:It's been nine years. Nine years I lost Roger Okay.
Speaker 2:I'm coming up on seven years since my husband, tom. I'm so sorry for your loss. Oh, thank you. Like you, I got to a point that I had to do something, and it's very interesting how it happens with different people at different times. How it happens with different people at different times. I love that it was the waves that helped you, because nature often plays a part in that, whether it's the sounds of nature, the air that you're inhaling or the log you might be sitting on, or the picnic table in the park or whatever. But the other thing I kind of wanted to mention too is this whole widow's fog. I never thought much about it, even though I had heard the term before. I never thought much about it until I could not make a decision which M&M to eat first and I thought oh my gosh, here we are, here we are. This is uglier than I thought.
Speaker 3:It is, and nobody understands it unless they're in our shoes, exactly Because we were a we and now we have to navigate life as a me. Yeah, so the person that I would always go to and ask for oh right, just to do Right, the person I needed to help me get through that grief, he was no longer here, right, and yours was double-sided because you were no longer a wife.
Speaker 2:okay, but your daughter is looking to you and watching you and she lost the mom that she knew. Yes, yes, you know. So you once you realize that of course you were trying to reconstruct that and rebuild that bond and everything and show her and reassure her that everything was okay. Now you stood there in front of the waves and you decided you wanted to swim. You know, you didn't want to give in, you didn't want to give up, you wanted to swim. What did you do first? Oh, this is a good question.
Speaker 3:I did not know what self-care was. I came from Chicago I grew up with my dad came from Lithuania. My mom came from Germany. They were already in their 20s when they came to America and in Chicago we have all these ethnic communities. So I didn't even speak English, even though I was born in Chicago. Until I was five years old, I taught myself English through watching Sesame Street when I was made fun of in kindergarten because I didn't know how to speak English. So my background is Eastern European and we.
Speaker 3:I lost my brother when I was nine years old and, no, we were not allowed to talk about it. We were not allowed to talk about him. We weren't allowed to bring up his name. We had to shut all of that down. Any emotion I felt, I had to bury it deep inside of myself, and so I was raised that hard work ethics is what makes you be a good person, and sharing feelings was a sign of weakness, right. So when I made that decision on the beach, I had no idea what self-care was, even because to me that was selfish. I was a caregiver for almost five years for my husband. Then I was a caregiver for my father, so for a good 10 years I was a caregiver. There was no way that I was going to take time, carve out time to do a massage, or going and go for a walk, and just go for a walk without a purpose, just to go and breathe and talk to God and talk to my husband. That was so foreign to me. But on that beach there was a beach yoga session happening that time and I watched everybody there and I stopped and I'm like what are they doing? And it's not the traditional yoga. They were just stretching. It's not really what it looked like and I thought, okay, I needed to catch my breath. I was feeling so overwhelmed and I was scared. I was scared I was having a heart attack and I needed to calm down, I needed to breathe. So I didn't have a yoga mat with me, didn't have a towel, nothing. But I went furthest away from the group right Look here the yoga instructor and I just laid there and started doing the stretching exercises, including breathing exercises, and I could hear the waves crashing as I was doing it. I just started to cry. I just started crying and it was my very first emotional release, the very first time I was releasing all that grief that was sitting so deep inside my body and so I thought, okay, I don't know what that was about, I'm going to go back again tomorrow. And that's when I started to walk and I started to do the beach yoga.
Speaker 3:And also at the time when my husband passed, he passed away through hospice at home. So I was able to get bereavement counseling through hospice and it was only a short time they only allow you to have so many sessions. But he kept asking me well, what did you like to do before he passed away? And I didn't know, I was just a wreck. And then she said, well, said what did you like to do before you met him, before you were married? And like, why you still like to walk? And she's like, okay, let's talk about walking, why don't you go and walk? Or she had not lost her spouse and she didn't understand. And I was like, well, I can't do that. Remember I wanted to owe every morning, wanted to just crawl under the bed and take this picture. So I made a promise to her that I would start to walk.
Speaker 3:I failed that very first morning.
Speaker 3:I woke up and I laid my shoes out the night before.
Speaker 3:You would think it would be so easy to just lean over and tie your shoelaces? It's not. It is not. I couldn't do it. It was horrible. So I made a deal with myself, I negotiated with myself and I told myself and I write about this in my book, the Power of One If I get up tomorrow morning, all I have to do is walk for one minute. One minute, then I can go back to bed and I can cry and hold his picture, and then I'll add one minute every morning. And it was the best gift I ever gave myself, because in that there was a one minute every morning turned into 30 minutes one month later and I started to see the sky was blue again, I started to smell the grass, I could see the grass was green and I started to feel alive again. So that's the first step I did was I had to do inner healing within myself, right. And then I started to look into resources, and that was becoming a certified grief educator and grief coach.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. And that often happens is people will decide you know, this was so painful, so devastating, so difficult. I have to help others. Because I made it this far, I have to help others. It's also very common to find that same perspective in addiction and addiction counseling. A lot of times your counselors for addictions and alcoholism are addicts and alcoholics themselves. It's the same thing. They found recovery. They know it's hard, very, very difficult. So they want to help others and they want to be because they have the credibility and they can honestly say I know how you feel and they can mean it.
Speaker 3:yes, they can be honest and that's why I was so passionate about wanting to become a certified grief coach. I was shopping grief counselors, yeah, because remember I only got so many sessions through hiatus, right. And then I felt lost again. And as I was shopping grief counselors through my health insurance, nobody was a widow. Nobody had ever experienced the loss of a spouse. Some of them had never experienced any kind of loss. Yeah, their knowledge was textbook, right, right.
Speaker 3:And I could, I cannot connect with them. I felt like I was being just sit here and talk to me for 45 minutes and they were watching the clock and I didn't feel like they really were giving me any tools to be able to take those baby steps, to feel like I'm finally moving forward. Nobody told me that I can move forward and, with more love, more peace, start to find joy and hope. And I'm not leaving him behind, because that's what I struggled with. Every time a moment of joy would come up, I would push it down because that guilt would come up. How dare I start to feel joy if he's not here? Right, right. And so none of my counselors, grief counselors, they didn't understand that. They never told me that I can have gratitude and grieve at the same time, right, right they just couldn't put it all together in the right perspective for you.
Speaker 2:I understand that I was talking with someone recently about that very issue, that if you decide that you want to reach out and get some professional help, it's important that you not just say, okay, I'm going to go to this person. You need to figure out is there some chemistry there? Does this person make you feel comfortable? Do you feel that they can give you what you need? And it's almost like an interview. And then I made it a point to say that most of the grief educators, grief counselors, therapists, whatever their background, whatever their training is, whatever their certification is, most of them will offer that initial free consultation, phone call, virtual meeting, whatever, whether it's 10 minutes, 15 minutes, half an hour. I even know someone who does it for an hour You'll get an hour. Well, now, I know more than one someone's, but that's rare. But in an hour's time you should be able to know.
Speaker 2:Well, let's face it, christina, I met you tonight for the first time and probably within three minutes. You know we just clicked. Yes, we just clicked. And yet I have met guests that well. We just didn't really click. You know we still had a successful episode, but you know, when you click with someone, so try to. If you're going to look for professional help, don't look for a person, look for several and talk to all of them and then make your decision based on that and I think that 50% of your healing actually is due to connection, absolutely, absolutely, actually is due to connection, absolutely Absolutely.
Speaker 3:So having that connection is so important for you to even find many hope and healing.
Speaker 2:Absolutely and, let's face it, you are going to be telling these people some of your most intimate thoughts, fears, beliefs. You want someone that's going to be accepting of that, nonjudgmental, and someone who, number one, is actually going to listen and has the tools to share with you, yes, and also has a solid resource list of different things that might help you. Yeah, absolutely, I love that you said that the acceptance yeah.
Speaker 3:Because that's what I do. I accept you where you are right now, absolutely. You need your grief to be witnessed.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, kelly do you want to play? I was just going to say that I agree on the person thing. Fortunately, with my therapist, we clicked instantly and we're here 13 years later so doing therapy once a week. But it's just, it's very, very important. I agree that you'd have to connect with that person. Or you're not going to be honest with them or yourself and you're just going to be wasting both of your time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's a good point you are. If you're, if you don't feel comfortable with them, how are you going to open up the barrier soul, let's face it. Grief is Because, let's face it, grief is messy?
Speaker 2:Oh it is, it's ugly. It's ugly, it really is. Yeah, and now you mentioned that you've lost your husband. You've lost both parents, and that mirrors my losses too. I had one other that I added.
Speaker 2:I didn't add it, it just happened, but I lost an infant son who was less than 24 hours old. And all of those losses were at different times in my life and the grief was different with each loss. And in fact, the loss of my infant son, lee, was number two in my list of four major losses, and it was so long ago that the society's process, if you will, for dealing with grief is just pick yourself up, put your big girl panties on and move on. So for me, and that situation was unique in that when he was born, first he was stillborn, then they came back and said he was alive, and then they had to whisk him off to a different facility where they had a neonatal intensive care unit.
Speaker 2:That was time before smartphones. I never saw him, I never held him, there was no picture taken of him. So once I got home and then you add that generational conditioning, I call it sometimes of pick yourself up and move on yes, after a while, I forgot it ever happened. You know he was no longer in my thoughts. Every so often I'd have a fleeting thought, but it was just not there, not constant. And it wasn't until after I started the podcast and I started to talk about that loss again that I actually started to grieve his death after all these years.
Speaker 3:I'm so sorry for your loss.
Speaker 2:In my training they say that the two most difficult losses you will experience in your lifetime is spousal loss and the loss of a child, and the only thing I can think of that would have made his loss more difficult was the loss that people experience when they lose a child who is an adult, because they've had all those years of knowing and loving that child and watching them grow and watching them develop and mature, and then to lose them. So that must really exponentially be far more difficult. So, and my point in that was, you know, there were actually several points. First of all, grief is different for everybody. Yes, sometimes, depending on situations, you will go on not even aware anymore that something like that happened and then all of a sudden, bam, it's going to come and blindside you and you're going to have to deal with it. Yep, those grief waves. Now, someone had called them, someone had named them at one point and I can't remember the, can't remember the doesn't matter, but they were. It was like those little brief moments you get where you really get blindsided by that, that grief. And no, it was. They had a little acronym for it and I'll have to go look it up now and everything. But there was an article written about it. It was interesting. I probably mentioned it in a podcast 95 times in year 97. I can't think of it At any rate.
Speaker 2:But it is a definite issue and you know, I will go through days as, like I say, it's been almost seven years and I will think of Tom every minute of every day. But all I have to do and Kelly's going to smile at this one is see a bottle of hot sauce and Tom will immediately come to mind. He loves hot sauce. If I see someone in a military uniform, of course my mind will go to Tom. He served in Vietnam in a retired army, if I, even a first responder in uniform will bring back a memory of Tom.
Speaker 2:So there's many different things during the day. Tim Hortons always summons Tom back to me as well, because every day he had to have his Tim Hortons coffee. It's all those secondary lawsuits, absolutely, absolutely, you know, and those are things, but where they used to make me tear up, now they make me smile. Oh, that's good. So that also lets me know that I have progressed in my healing. Now I want to ask you too and maybe you said it and I missed it when you went to the beach and stood in front of those waves about how long had it been that your husband had been gone from you.
Speaker 3:Oh, I don't know. I would have to think about it. I can tell you more about that. That was right after my dad died. So I buried my grief with my daughter, wanting to be her rock. I did not process my grief, I buried it, shoved it down. Yep, it's what we do a lot. And then when my mom died unexpectedly with a brain aneurysm, I had to take care of my father, didn't even have to mourn my mom's loss, and then when my dad died, it all came up, okay. So I can tell you that this was about two months after my dad's passing.
Speaker 3:Okay, when that happened and it was I just couldn't. I didn't realize how quiet my house was. He died during my daughter's winter break. My father and, as his caregiver, I had pushed him in the wheelchair, help him with a walker. He had an oxygen tank.
Speaker 3:That first morning, after I dropped her off I think it was January 10th, after winter break ended it was so quiet in my house and that's when I realized, wow, I did not realize that his wheelchair made so much noise, how loud the oxygen tank was. That silence was so loud. I don't know how to explain it other than all of the noises that he used to bring with his chair was gone, had to just pick everything up the day that he died. So I would say it was about two months or so because I stayed stuck in bed after my dad died because all of a sudden, when he died, everybody that I lost my brother, my mother, my husband, my dad we all came up at once.
Speaker 3:And that's what I teach my clients is if you don't feel the feels, those grief feels, if you don't process it, if you don't dig deep down and do the grief work, yeah, it's going to come up when you don't want it to come up, when you least expect it to. Right, and that's what happened to me with. It was when my dad died. Yeah, I mean, you think about it, that was my first man that I ever loved. I was sure, girl, sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So, yeah, yeah, that happens and we often do push our grief down. We may, you know, sometimes we push it down for a long period of time, like you did, but especially if you have children, I think there's a tendency to do that even more. I didn't have anyone else in my household, it was just Tom and I. But I did experience getting up one day thinking, oh, I've got to get ready, I've got to go to Batavia, which was about a 45 minute drive, I've got to go and visit Tom. And then I realized no, I don't. And I stood there and I thought what do I do now? Right, I was, I was lost, yes, I was lost.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, it's very difficult and pushing it down doesn't help. I mean, that's what I did for years with Lee and even with my father and my mother. My father died in his late 40s and he actually was ill and couldn't give me away for my wedding. He was in the hospital that day. So those all, even though there was a loss attached to that, there were other losses. There were all these incidental losses, these collateral losses, the fact that my own father couldn't give me away for my wedding.
Speaker 2:My brother fortunately stepped up in his US Air Force blues and walked me down the aisle and that was okay, and my brother and I talk about it and we laugh about it to this today because as he stood there with me in front of the minister and the minister said who gives this woman to be wed, we had rehearsed it. He was supposed to say her mother and I do okay, or our mother and I do, whichever one he wanted. And my brother stood there that day and when the minister said who gives this woman to be wed, his response was there that day. And when the minister said who gives this woman to be wed, his response was our mother and I do gladly. I don't think anybody else in the church could hear that.
Speaker 3:Gladly, Gladly yeah. But, he was probably nervous.
Speaker 2:Oh well, no, I think he did it to be just my brother. You know we have a really good relationship at any rate, okay. So at what point then did you know, when you saw those waves and everything, did writing a book come to you then, or was that later?
Speaker 3:Oh, no, the book was later. Yeah, oh no, it was. I didn't know where to start and that's why I went and found other grief counselors and was first trying to do it where it was through my health insurance and, I'll be honest with you, that stopped. I could not find any grief counselor, yeah, that understood spousal loss and understood, and I almost felt berated. Yeah, you know, like, well, why can't you do this? And they never share.
Speaker 3:Not one person talked to me about widow swag Not one person at my primary care. Every time I would end up in an ER not understanding what was happening. I could not ignore the symptoms because I thought I was having a heart attack and I couldn't call 911 because I didn't want my little girl to see uh-oh, is mommy going to die now too? So every time I would go to the ER, they didn't talk to me about widow's fog. They didn't talk to me about any tools or anything that I could do to help myself, because they don't know.
Speaker 3:No, we live in such an uneducated grief society and the doctors who have to care for us, they have not gone through a grief education. They have never been trained to have bedside manners, at least in my experience and still the one day that I did have a sweet doctor who he just held my hand and he said sweet doctor, who he just held my hand and he said you need to take care of yourself. The way you have been placing that nurturing heart into everybody else, you now need to do it for yourself, absolutely. But no, I don't know when. The book I just published it a year ago.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it took me over a year, almost two years, to write this book, and so it's now. Self-care was and my good friend John Polo said once that self-care can be very simple. It can be simply surrounding yourself by the right people, you know, making sure that the people who support you are on your little team and everything. And if you have toxic people that keep asking you, you know, haven't you gotten over yet?
Speaker 3:Yeah, oh, you know I go this all the time. Christina, you need to move on, yeah, over him. Like, how do I get over him? He's the father of my child, absolutely, absolutely. Also, I also say in my group, when I talk about self-care, that rest. We need to listen to our body, oh, absolutely, and sometimes we just need to rest and that's a form of self-care too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. And the first thing, the first piece of advice I ever give. Anyone who says, what would you tell somebody who's dealing with grief? I just say be patient with yourself, give yourself grace. Yeah, just be patient. Patient with yourself, give yourself grace. Yeah, just be patient. Yeah, I love that, yeah, yeah. Well, sadly, time goes by so fast. These, yeah, I talk forever. I really think we could. So that just means that you're going to have to come back another time. I would love to it would be my honor, thank you no, not, not a problem.
Speaker 2:It'll be our honor, actually. But yes, you need to come back another time. But let's wind this down. First of I want to turn the microphone over to you and have you tell people more about your book, about what other services you might offer them, any classes you might have, your coaching services whatever.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much. Yes, I've written that book, the Positive Widow, and it's found on Amazon, but I've actually started offering to anyone that wants me to personally sign the book and write a little bit about their husband and dedicate it to their husband and his memory. I will be happy to do that, Sweet. Yeah, that's been actually such a blessing for so many. You can reach out to me by either sending me an email to the positive widow at outlookcom, and I also have a website, wwwthepositivewidowcom.
Speaker 3:If you are a widow, I have a free Facebook group, the positive widow. That's my brand. If you haven't picked up on that, I'll be looking for it. Yeah, I see you should. And I also have a coloring book, an adult coloring book that helps with anxiety, and that's on Amazon and that's under the Positive Widow as well.
Speaker 3:And then I also have been a keynote speaker at many grief events and I created a program that I'm so proud of. It's called the Positive Widow Grief Relief Group Coaching Program and it's a very small group. I have to keep it small because it's a very personalized grief coaching program and I call it the hope seat instead of the hot seat. I do some teaching for about an hour and then I have grief experts come in to do grief body movement exercises and then I do the hope seat and that's where the magic happens and that's where the sisterhood connections happen, and I offer that throughout the year. So feel free again to email me or you can Facebook Messenger me. You can find me anywhere at social media under the positive widow or Christina. Napoleon Sounds great.
Speaker 2:Sounds great. Thank you so so much. Absolutely so, kelly. Did you have anything you want to insert before I wrap?
Speaker 4:it up. I just want to say thank you, christina, for coming on our podcast today. I learned so much from you already, and it's only been it, so I look forward to talking to you again and I'll be emailing you. That's so kind.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much for saying that. It means so much to me. Thank you, it was such a pleasure to meet both of you, and I would love to come back.
Speaker 2:Well, I think our friendship has only just begun. I think so too. Our paths are going to cross a few times here.
Speaker 3:And that's the beautiful thing about what we're doing, absolutely. We meet such wonderful people and our bonds and connections are so strong. Yep, I love lifelong connections.
Speaker 2:I believe that I believe that I believe that completely. So, listeners, it's time once again for me to wind down and say again thank you, thank you for taking the time out of your day to listen. Whatever activity you may have been doing in addition to listening is fine. The fact that you listen is wonderful, listening is great. I hope you have heard something that has piqued your curiosity and that you either reach out to Christina, maybe to ask a question or ask about her services or to purchase her book, and if, for some reason, you are not able to afford a book, ask your library to get a copy. Ask your library, let them know you heard this great podcast and make sure you tell them the name and this book was talked about on it and you think it'd be a great addition. Did you know? Can I offer something?
Speaker 3:free to your listeners, Sure go ahead.
Speaker 3:If they want to send me an email to thepositivewidowatoutlookcom, I can email them three free Greek guides. Wow, yes. So for any of your listeners, they're wonderful guides. The first one is how to survive the holidays after a loss. And then, because of my finance background of 25 plus years, I also did a financial reference guide for me with oh, and that one is the most sought after guide. And then I created a hopeful mornings and a peaceful evening practical checklist. I love checklists, I'm a checklist girl and, as widows, as caregivers most especially if we're entering widowhood, as a caregiver we're so exhausted so it's little things that you can check off, like remembering to brush your teeth at night. That's cool. Yes, it is all centered around the words hopeful and peaceful Nice, I like that. Well, feel free to send me an email and I'll be happy to send those free grief guides to you.
Speaker 2:I'll have to try to remember to put that in the podcast notes as well, for people that maybe didn't listen all the way to the end. Yeah, I know sometimes that happens. I'm just Alrighty. So I guess I've talked enough. Now it's time to let Christina go, let Kelly go, but to say to everyone thanks so much again for listening. Please take care of yourselves and come back again next time, as we all continue to live in grief. Thank you, christina. Thank you, as we all continue to live and grieve. Thank you, christina. Thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for listening with us today. Do you have a topic that you'd like us to cover or do you have a question from one of our episodes? Please email us at info at asiliveandgrievecom and let us know. We hope you will find a moment to leave a review, send an email and share with others. Join us next time as we continue to live and grieve together.