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The Leftover Pieces: Suicide Loss Conversations
Suicide loss changes everything. The Leftover Pieces® Podcast explores life after suicide through honest conversations with survivors, experts, and grieving parents learning to live forward after unimaginable loss. Parents, partners, siblings, and friends share what it means to keep living when the world has been forever changed.
Hosted by Melissa Bottorff-Arey, whose 21-year-old son Alex died by suicide in 2016, the show blends intimate conversations with survivors, healers, and mental health professionals with short solo reflections you can actually use. Together we explore child loss, trauma and nervous-system care, anniversaries and seasons, stigma, faith and meaning, legacy, and the everyday practices that help make life livable again.
At its heart, this podcast is about learning to live forward after loss. We never move on from the people we love, but we can learn to carry the grief differently. This road can feel incredibly lonely—but you are not alone here.
For supporters, educators, and professionals, these conversations also offer insight into the realities of suicide grief and what genuine, non-fixing support can look like.
If you’d like to share your story or expertise, you can request to be a guest through Melissa’s website.
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Content Note
This podcast speaks candidly about grief and suicide loss and may feel activating for some listeners. We avoid graphic descriptions and discussion of suicide methods. Please care for yourself as needed. Melissa is not a doctor or licensed therapist, and nothing shared here should be considered medical or mental-health advice.
The Leftover Pieces: Suicide Loss Conversations
Imogen's Mom; A Good Mourning Legacy
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Today I talk to Imogen Carn who is a suicide loss survivor. "Im", as she goes by, is the co-host of the Good Mourning Podcast (with Sally "Sal" Douglas). Im & Sal believe that "together, let’s make the topic of grief more open and less awkward." They speak to grief and loss of many different kinds as they both lost their mothers (but to different manner of death)
Im's mother Vanessa died by suicide on Feb 22, 2020, just before the world locked down for the first wave of the pandemic. Her death was a complete and total shock to the family as Vanessa had no previous history of mental health conditions or suicidal ideation. She even says it would be months before she would really comprehend the lockdown because of the trauma of her grief. Im is warm and candid and funny. This conversation is important and it was my honor to have shared this time with Imogen!
Find her on INSTAGRAM at Good Mourning |Grief Podcast HERE
Find Imogen (& Sally) on their podcast Good Mourning HERE and the Facebook Group
Dr. Edith Eger's book, The Choice, as was referenced and her follow-up book, The Gift
HERE is the LINK for The Alliance of Hope
HERE is the LINK to Rebecca Jax Holistic Healing
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IN THE COMING WEEKS - by Sept 15 - my (in progress) website "The Leftover Pieces; Rebuilding You" will be LIVE and that means my first coaching options will be available. The first (3 month) group is planned to begin SEPT 29, so stay tuned and then there will be a new group start every 3 months. There will be limited spots in each group so let me know if you want on the notify list! These groups will be one part community, one part discovery/growth. I believe these two things are intertwined for us in the earlier stages of grief especially.
Interested? Please DM me on Instagram or email me at anytime melissa@thel
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💜 The Leftover Pieces is support central for grieving hearts.
🔗 Stay connected: Join my free email community for weekly check-ins, resources, and encouragement.
🌟 For moms: Explore the $9 Lighthouse Community — safe connection, tools, and hope.
🛠 Resources for all grievers: Start here.
🤝 One-on-one grief coaching for moms after child loss to suicide: Learn more here.
📞 Need help now? If you or someone you love is struggling with suicidal thoughts, dial 988 in the U.S. & Canada, or text HOME to 741741.