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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
Grief Truth #9; August Daily Nuggets
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
“This loss rewrites your story.”
Welcome, fellow griever.
This is your Daily Nugget from me, Melissa, your host of The Leftover Pieces.
Today we will share a moment of presence, a breath of truth, and a reminder.
Let’s begin.
Let's take a breath together. Let yourself arrive. Sometimes we don’t need answers — just something true to hold. Here’s today’s grief truth.
This loss rewrites your story.
You had a story — a vision for how things would go.
Then loss ripped the page in half.
But the story didn’t end there.
You’re still writing it, even now — breath by breath, memory by memory.
It’s okay to mourn the old version. That version mattered.
But so does the version that’s here now, holding the pen with trembling hands and a heart that still beats with love.
Every loss doesn’t erase your life; it reshapes it.
The new chapters may be harder… but they can still hold meaning, love, and even beauty.
This part of your story is still yours to tell — and you’re doing it bravely.
Now, take another breath.
Let this moment be enough.
Carry the piece that speaks to you.
You’re not alone in this remembering.
I’ll be here again tomorrow.
Talk soon.
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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.