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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
Wrap Pt 1: Hope in the Hollow + Healing in Motion After Suicide Loss
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
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TODAY --We started by finding light you could actually hold, then practiced repairs small enough to repeat.
Journal prompt: “What I’m keeping from these first two weeks is…”
Gather three flickers that worked for you—window light, their bracelet, a five-minute witness. Then build a mini rebuild stack you can run in ten minutes: one body reset (3-3-6 breath or warm/cold contrast), one Brick-of-the-Day (clear a square, pay one bill), and one connection move (five-minute witnessing ask or self-witness memo). Step by pinning a note titled “Weeks 1–2 Keepers” so it’s one tap away on rough days.
Choose-your-energy menu:
- Hollow (low): Do one flicker only. Stop there.
- Healing (medium): Run the mini stack with a timer and drink water afterward.
- Becoming (higher): Schedule the mini stack three times over the next seven days.
To end today:
You don’t have to remember the whole month when grief blindsides you—just where to begin. Ten minutes of practiced care beats an hour of bargaining with yourself. Keep your kit within reach. Familiar steps don’t trivialize your pain; they give it rails to run on so you can make it through the day you’re in.
Exhale. Keep what serves you; leave the rest. I’ll be here again tomorrow. 💜
Click to Send a Text or Voicemail to Melissa
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💜 The Leftover Pieces is support for life after suicide loss. Click links below
🎙 Leave me a message: Share a question, your story, or your person’s name for a future episode → theleftoverpieces.com/voicemail
🔗 Stay connected: Join my email community for weekly support, resources, and honest conversations.
🛠 Start here: Explore website for suicide loss resources for early grief, family support, and next steps.
🤝 For moms: One-on-one grief coaching for mothers navigating life after child loss.
📞 Need support right now? If you or someone you love is struggling, call or text 988 (U.S. & Canada), or text HOME to 741741.