Podcast Episode

Seeing Death Clearly

Grief and Finding the Right Support with Restfully Founder Sarah Baldwin

Aug 02, 2026 Episode 170

Jill McClennen

When someone dies, the grief is only part of what families are carrying. Along with the emotional pain often comes a long list of decisions, paperwork, phone calls, family dynamics, and practical tasks that can feel impossible to manage while you're mourning.

In this episode of Seeing Death Clearly, death doula and funeral celebrant Jill McClennen talks with Sarah Baldwin, founder of Restfully, about why navigating loss shouldn't have to be so overwhelming and how better support can help people focus on what matters most.

Sarah shares the deeply personal experience that inspired Restfully. After her mother died from lung cancer, she found herself facing the same confusing and fragmented system that so many families encounter after a death. Although her mother's death had been expected, nothing truly prepared her for the emotional weight or the practical responsibilities that followed. Drawing on her background in finance and operations, Sarah realized there had to be a better way to connect people with trustworthy resources during one of the most difficult times of their lives.

Together, Jill and Sarah explore the reality that grief doesn't begin only after someone dies.

Anticipatory grief can be just as profound, and even when families know a death is coming, they often feel unprepared for everything that follows. They discuss how logistical demands—finding hospice, planning a funeral, cleaning out a home, managing paperwork, or coordinating services—can leave little room to simply grieve.

A major focus of the conversation is the importance of personalized grief support. Sarah explains Restfully's four grief personas—Open Heart, Quiet Anchor, Steady Hand, and Seeker—and how each reflects a different way people process loss and seek help. Rather than assuming everyone grieves the same way, these personas encourage a more compassionate, individualized approach to communication and support.

Sarah also shares how Restfully is expanding beyond educational resources into practical tools designed to make help easier to find. The platform is developing a vetted vendor directory and a "solution database" that allows people to search by the problem they're trying to solve—whether they need a funeral home, hospice provider, death doula, estate attorney, home cleanout service, grief counselor, or another type of support. They also discuss scholarship opportunities and other efforts to make these services more accessible to people who might otherwise struggle to afford them.

The conversation touches on the challenges of building a mission-driven business in the end-of-life space. Sarah talks openly about balancing the desire to provide meaningful support with the realities of sustaining an organization financially. Jill and Sarah also discuss how grief often shows up in unexpected ways, including anger expressed online, family conflict, or emotional reactions that may not immediately be recognized as grief at all.

Throughout the episode, both emphasize that there is no single "right" way to grieve. People need different kinds of information, different kinds of support, and different timing. Meeting people where they are—with practical resources, compassion, and without judgment—can make an enormous difference during one of life's hardest experiences.

Whether you're planning ahead, supporting someone who is seriously ill, grieving the loss of a loved one, or simply interested in improving end-of-life care, this conversation offers thoughtful insights into making death and grief a little less overwhelming and a lot more human.

00:00 Death Connects Us

01:21 Meet Sarah Baldwin

02:15 What Is Restfully

02:49 Why She Started

05:55 Losing Her Mom

08:43 Clearing Space To Grieve

09:36 Unexpected Logistics Stress

12:27 Building The Team

13:21 Four Grief Personas

17:14 How The Personas Formed

20:37 Sitting With Unknowns

22:55 Death Work And Cultural Shift