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
Overcoming; A Brave Dad Grieves Outloud
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Today I speak with a father who lost his son Heston to suicide June 7, 2020
"Andy Campbell’s new book, Overcoming Life’s Toughest Setbacks, distills his 15 core beliefs that helped him keep going when life didn’t let up. His lens is earned: childhood sexual abuse and bullying, losing his mother young, estrangement from his father, a diagnosis of stage-4 pancreatic cancer with multiple surgeries and chemo, and the death of his youngest son by suicide.
The result is a practical, no-nonsense approach—favoring humility, clear thinking, focused work, relentless curiosity, perseverance, and finishing what you start. Andy writes and speaks for people who are exhausted, hurting, and still trying, offering a framework you can reach for when you need steadiness. He lives with his wife and stays closely connected to his three adult children."
More at askandycampbell.com.
His Book: Overcoming Life's Toughest Setbacks
In this episode: we walk through key ideas from the book and talk about Andy’s son, Heston (age 18) how he and his family has been processing their loss since his passing. We get a peek at Andy’s father’s-eye view of resilience and what surviving—and continuing to live with meaning—looks like now. He discusses his 15 core beliefs and how they are the guideposts he's documented (first for himself and now in his book) that have provided a path to continue forward. He shares his "why" is to share these beliefs with real life examples as a possibility they will encourage someone that they too can continue in spite of the grief -- feel it completely but still move through it.
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💜 The Leftover Pieces is support central for grieving hearts.
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🛠 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.