Content warning: This episode discusses addiction, suicidal ideation, incarceration, and the death of a sibling in jail after being denied medical care.

In this episode of The Broken Pack: Stories of Sibling Loss, Dr. Dean talks with Dr. Elizabeth Ostler, a Brooklyn-based theater maker, academic, and surviving sibling who has lost two of her three siblings. Elizabeth's sister Lisa died in 2016 at age 37, three days after being arrested and held as a pretrial detainee in a Salt Lake City jail, where she asked for help and was denied medical care. Six years later, Elizabeth lost her brother Rob.

Together, Elizabeth and Angela talk about what it means to love a sibling through more than a decade of addiction, the grieving that begins long before a death, and why the loss you thought you were prepared for still arrives as a shock. Elizabeth shares why she couldn't speak about how Lisa died for nearly ten years, what finally made it possible, and how that became SisterPlay, a new play premiering in New York City this September. She also reads a short passage from it. 

In this episode you will:

• Hear Elizabeth's story of losing Lisa and Rob, and where she was when the call about Lisa came. 
• Learn how grief changed shape for her over ten years, and what helped when one loss became two. 
• Be inspired by how a surviving sibling turned the worst thing that happened to her family into a work of art that refuses to let her sister become a statistic.

SisterPlay runs September 1 through 13, 2026, at The Flea Theater in New York City. Learn more and buy tickets: https://www.elizabethostler.com/sisterplay

Connect with Elizabeth Ostler:

• SisterPlay
• Communal Theater Company
• Instagram: @communaltheater  and @lizostler
• TikTok: @communaltheater and @lizostler700 
• Facebook: @communaltheater and @lizostler

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• COPE Foundation, sibling loss support group (New York)  
• The Other Side Academy 
• Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
• The Equal Justice Initiative
• Speaking Grief (WPSU documentary)

Crisis Resources

Content warning: This episode discusses addiction, suicidal ideation, incarceration, and the death of a sibling in jail after being denied medical care. Please take care of yourself.

• In the US:
  • Suicide and Crisis Lifeline (US): Call or text 988
  • Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741
  • SAMHSA National Helpline (substance use, for you or a loved one): 
    1-800-662-HELP (4357)
  • Peer support / warmlines: https://warmline.org
• International
  • International warmline directory: https://www.supportiv.com/tools/international-resources-
  • Find a helpline anywhere in the world: https://findahelpline.com

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

If you would like more information or to share your own sibling loss story, please contact Dr. Angela Dean at contact@thebrokenpack.com or go to our website, thebrokenpack.com.

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Thank you!
Angela M. Dean, PsyD, FT, GTMR 

🐺Tony's Little Sister

Credits:

The Broken Pack: Stories of Sibling Loss is produced by Not Done Here Media.

IF TOMORROW STARTS WITHOUT ME
    Written by Joe Mylward and Brian Dean
    Performed by Fuji Sounds featuring Joe Mylward
    Courtesy of Not Done Here Records
    Licensed for use by The Broken Pack

Full song: https://fujisounds.music