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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 #21; August Daily Nuggets
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
"Grief is the price of love."
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.
Lean in with me ---
If we never loved deeply, we’d never hurt this much.
"Grief is the price of love."
Grief is not a punishment. It’s the echo of the love that filled your life—and the love that still lives inside you.
The ache you feel is proof that what you had was real, beautiful, and worth every moment.
If the price of that love is this grief, it’s a price we pay willingly—because to have lived without it would have been an even greater loss.
We can’t separate love and grief. They are two sides of the same coin, and both are sacred.
Let your grief remind you: you loved deeply, and that love will always be yours.
Breathe deeply.
You are allowed to set down the weight, even for just a moment.
What you know in your bones is unshakable.
The journey you’re on is sacred, even when it feels lonely.
I’ll meet you here again tomorrow. Until then, keep going.
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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.