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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
Legacy After Child Loss by Suicide: What Alex Taught Me About Carrying Love Forward
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After child loss by suicide, legacy can become a bridge from survival into connection, meaning, and carrying love forward.
In this episode of Down the Rabbit Hole, Melissa reads her chapter from Because They Lived: Memories & Stories of Amazing Kids Lost to Suicide - As Told by the Moms They Left Behind --Volume 7, The chapter is titled “The Seventh Thread: What Alex Taught Me About Legacy.”
This episode is part reflection, part chapter reading, and part invitation to think differently about legacy after loss. What began as a project to help mothers preserve their children’s stories slowly became something deeper: a way to continue relationship, carry love forward, and begin rebuilding after survival.
In this episode, Melissa reflects on:
- why the number 7 became meaningful after Alex’s death
- how The Legacy Project began as a way to remember children
- why legacy is about more than preserving memories
- how story, writing, and connection can become a bridge after child loss
- what seven volumes and twenty-one children have taught her about love
- why legacy does not have to look public, polished, or like anyone else’s path
- how each grieving mother may discover her own bridge forward
Melissa also shares why Volume 7 feels like the natural completion of this version of The Legacy Project, while still leaving room for future story, legacy, and publishing support in other forms.
Because They Lived: Volume 7 is not only Alex’s story. It is also the story of the mothers and children who walked through this final Legacy Project volume with me — Suzanne for Skyler, Roe for Molly, Lou for Liam and Kim for Carson— each one honored with tenderness, courage, and love. In fact, across all 7 volumes, twenty-one children and twenty-one mothers have now been represented in these pages, creating a collective legacy of lives remembered fully, names spoken with love, and stories carried forward. Take a look at the Amazon link below OR if you do not wish to own the books, you can always email melissa directly for a free link to the eBook - while these books are priced very close to publishing costs, Melissa never wants anything to stand in the way of others reading these stories, saying their names... melissa@theleftoverpieces.com
Resources Mentioned
- Read Because They Lived: Volume 7 on Amazon: AMAZON BOOK LINK
- View all of Melissa’s books (Inc. Vol 1-6 of the Legacy project) on Amazon: AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE LINK
- Story, legacy, and publishing support: WORK WITH ME LINK
- You Are Not Alone Moms Support — Always FREE monthly support space for grieving mothers: REGISTER HERE
- The Bridge Sessions: Inside The Rebuilding Room — Always FREE monthly guided rebuilding space for grieving mothers: REGISTER HERE
If this episode resonates with you, please follow the show, share it with another grieving mother who may need it, and consider leaving a rating or review.
It helps The Leftover Pieces reach more grieving people who are learning how to live after loss. Thank you so very much -- Melissa
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
Support After Suicide Loss
If you are grieving after suicide loss, you do not have to carry this alone.
Visit The Leftover Pieces for podcast episodes, grief support, resources, and ways to connect with Melissa’s work: https://theleftoverpieces.com
or Join Melissa’s email list: https://theleftoverpieces.com/join
If you someone you love is in immediate crisis or may be in danger, please call or text 988 in the United States. You can also text HOME to 741741 to reach the Crisis Text Line