Coffee Talk With The Cajun Mamas

Finding Support After Child Loss With Redbird Ministries

• Chris Logan Media • Season 3 • Episode 47

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Grief has a way of shrinking your world overnight, and for many parents after miscarriage, stillbirth, infant loss, or the death of a child, the hardest part is believing you’re the only one living it. We’re joined by Kelly Brough of Redbird Ministries, a Lafayette-based grief support ministry serving families across Louisiana and beyond, to talk honestly about what loss does to a marriage, a faith life, and day-to-day motherhood.

Kelly shares how Redbird Ministries was founded from personal experience and why their approach focuses on the whole person: spiritual care, emotional support, psychological tools, and the relational work of learning how to grieve together. We also talk about the reality that child loss is far more common than most people realize, and how silence can make a painful season even more isolating. If you’ve ever wondered what to say to a grieving friend, or what kind of help actually matters, this conversation brings clarity and compassion.

We also dig into what retreats can offer grieving mothers, including Kelly’s work with the Sisters of Life and the CFR, plus how Redbird helps parishes develop long-term support that continues after the funeral and beyond the first wave of check-ins. You’ll hear about Redbird’s “Boogie with the Birdie” fundraiser, the meaning behind the red bird symbol in grief, and practical ways to get connected to resources and community.

If this spoke to you, subscribe, share it with someone who needs hope, and leave a quick review so more families can find this support when they’re searching for it.

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Sisters Of Life On Hallow

SPEAKER_03

So the Sisters of Life, like I think I just heard about them for the first time on the Halo app. Like, do you remember it's the same ones? It has to be the same ones. It has to be. Like uh who is the the nun? Um do you know what I'm talking about, Kelly, on the Halo app in life?

SPEAKER_00

Welcome to Coffee Talk with a Cajun Mamas. Grab a cup of coffee, settle in, and let's dive into real conversations about life, motherhood, and a little inspiration to brighten your day.

SPEAKER_03

Welcome to Coffee Talk with the Cajun Mamas in April. We already hear I say that every month, like an old lady.

SPEAKER_01

Like an old lady, but it's so true. Everything goes by so fast.

SPEAKER_03

It's true, I know. But it's spring is here, it's spring, it's sprung. The weather's been nice, like oh at least for this.

SPEAKER_01

I hope it is for you to be.

SPEAKER_03

I know some of our friends uh up north still have snow problem, but it's been nice in Cajun Country lately.

SPEAKER_01

Even a little warm.

Sponsor Shoutout Chris Logan Media

SPEAKER_03

A little warm, I know. But anyway, um, let's start off by thanking our sponsor for uh this episode is Chris Logan Media. This is a little dear to our heart because Chris Logan Media produces our podcast.

SPEAKER_01

It sure does.

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And he he can do that for you if you're interested in starting up a podcast um or you know somebody who is, spread the word because he and his team do an amazing job. If you see us on our YouTube channel, you'll see the full video production that uh Chris Logan Media can provide. We look so good in this studio. The lighting is wonderful, the sound quality, everything. Um, it's just a dream come true, really. So they do offer podcast um production, like the shooting aspect of it, the editing, the audio. Um, you can come to their studio in Church Point or they can go to you. So um give Chrisloganmedia.com a look and um you can contact him and ask more information. They also offer uh media management in general, like content creation for your business and um a little bit of uh help maybe with your website and just really getting you some good advertisement, like good quality advertisement.

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So yeah, sure is nice.

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It is so nice. Not for like one less thing we have to do, you know, and who does such a great job for it?

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Or just show up and they take care of it, and we talk, you know. And yap. If you like the yap, you know, might be for you.

Headphones And Remote Guest Setup

SPEAKER_03

That's right. All right, Chris Loganmedia.com if you want more information. And thanks for being a sponsor of Coffee Talk with the Cajun Mamas. Now, we um you probably noticed if you're watching our video on YouTube right now, we have some new accessories on right now. We have some headphones on. I really feel like um this we in our 911 operative outfits right now.

SPEAKER_01

This is really official for you, 911. I mean, this is kind of the getup you're gonna need.

SPEAKER_03

I know, I'm just missing my LADO though. Yeah, my Leto mic. But yeah, you look you look cute in headphones.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, thank you. I took a picture of myself too. I felt so cute.

SPEAKER_03

It'll it'll be at a uh like something to make people stop their scroll, I think. Oh, yeah. That's different.

SPEAKER_01

What's going on on that podcast?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. The reason we have headphones on is because we have um a guest, but she wasn't able to make it in studio with us, so we're trying out this uh calling feature. And Kelly, are you there? I am all right. So tell us who you are, who you're with, and um, you know, a little bit about what it is that you do to our listeners.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, absolutely. So my name is Kelly Brough. I live in Bro Bridge, so not too far from you guys. I wish we could have got together.

SPEAKER_03

You just ride down the road.

SPEAKER_02

I know, I know. It just fell on a uh on a day. So our our work uh with Redbird, so my husband and I found Redbird in 2018 in the Diocese of Lafayette, and so um our ministry served the heart of families of child loss. And then we also two recently in the past two years, two and a half years, um, took on serving families of loss to suicide and our littlest grievers ages two to 17. So that work is near and dear to to my heart because it comes from personal loss and just trying to navigate that in my motherhood and my husband and his fatherhood and trying to grieve together as a couple and just not really understanding how to do that. So I can imagine. Yeah, so today why I couldn't be with you guys is because I'm leaving, I'm traveling to New York to co-host and facilitate a grieving mother's retreat with the Sisters of Life and the CFR. So part of our work is also too is teaching other communities how to do what we've developed here in Lafayette. Um, we are the only um grief support ministry that is endorsed and in the Kennedy directory with the USCCB, which means that the bishops put their stamp of approval on our work and how we minister to families. So although we are a Catholic organization, we serve anyone. So we kind of operate kind of like Lord Costco. It's like you walk through the doors, we're gonna love you. Yeah, we're just gonna pour pour our love on you, and we do we do minister to anyone.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, I love that. I'm so glad that y'all bring that to other places. Y'all are doing God's work in that because I mean there has to be somebody who's there's always somebody going through the same thing that you are, but in that case, you might not know where to turn.

SPEAKER_03

Right. Yeah. Yeah. I can only imagine they don't really know a lot of people don't know how to process things, and having someone at the the head of it that has gone through it personally, that I'm sure makes the world a difference.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, when we lost our first son in 2005, what I always share to everyone it was before social media, before iPhones, before like connection was um like really easy. So, you know, I live in a small community, Broadge is only 8,800 people. And so if you don't know anyone personally who would experience that loss, you could like you could literally be in your home alone, feeling like this is you're the only person that this has happened to. And um I am shy by nature, so I'm not someone who would like go searching. Yeah, like for the people. And so it was a very isolating experience to me. But you know, a lot of times people think of like grief ministry for child loss as a niche ministry, but statistics say otherwise one in four pregnancies will end in miscarriage, and twenty over twenty percent of the population will experience loss of a child at some point in their childbearing years. It's a miracle, like it's a miracle, it's a it's a miracle of God that you know when we have a healthy baby and we you know they grow to adulthood, it really is a miracle of of God in his love.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, for sure. I always remember being so scared in their those first couple of weeks of pregnancy that something was gonna go wrong, or you know, because it it's one in four.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, you know, it seems to happen so much more often, or maybe it's just talked about more often.

SPEAKER_01

And I think I think people need to know that they're not alone, you know?

Sisters Of Life Retreats Explained

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. So the Sisters of Life, like I think I just heard about them for the first time on the Halo app. Like, do you remember Sister? Is it the same ones? It has to be the same ones, I think. Like uh who was the the nuns? Not Sister Miriam.

SPEAKER_02

Um, do you know what I'm talking about, Kelly, on the Halo app? It might, yeah, it might be Sister Maria P. F. Austina. She's the one I wrote The Let Me Have Trust.

SPEAKER_03

Uh I that's gotta be the same one that I'm thinking of. How awesome.

SPEAKER_01

It was like it was like a um, it was like a lady. I think it was on a Thursday, and she was telling her story and she was saying how she um oh that's Mother Agnes.

SPEAKER_02

I think my is it Mother Agnes? Maybe, yeah, this for Lynn. Yes, yes. Yeah, it was the Mother Superior.

SPEAKER_03

I wonder if you're gonna get to meet her or see her.

SPEAKER_02

I don't know because there there's there's motherhouses, like there's convents like across the US. Okay. I have met Sister Maria Faustina Pia. She, I think that's how you say her name. Uh the one that wrote the Litney of Trust. I met uh Sister Bethany Madonna in my like when we were in Phoenix. Um but they're all they're all beautiful. Yeah, they're all beautiful.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. How many people um go to these retreats? Like, are they all expecting?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, so it all depends on where it is and what um sometimes we just do parenatal loss, which is miscarriage, still birth, and infant loss, and this retreat specifically that we are doing is perinatal loss, so it's just early loss.

unknown

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

Um, and I think we have like 20 moms that are coming on that one, but the ones usually in Lafayette that we do in our diocese, we will we uh will accompany any aide. We usually have over 50 women there.

Boogie With The Birdie Fundraiser

SPEAKER_03

And you have an event coming up that you wanted to talk about?

SPEAKER_02

I d I do, yeah. So yeah, so Redbird does an annual event every year, and it's it's morphed into different things over the years. But this year, our annual event, we are doing what's called Boogie with the Birdie. So it's a big celebration. We um we hired Louisiana Red to be our entertainment, and Father Stephen Pelsier and Father Don Bernard are gonna be our MCs. So we're saying, come Boogie with the Red Birdies and our men in black. And so we're just trying to like yeah, like do something like celebratory. We've been, you know, this will be our seventh, I think our seventh year, eighth year uh in ministry. And we've just accomplished a lot from starting as a local ministry and only serving the people in our diocese to being called throughout the US and even some international chapters to take what we were doing here and and to to bring it to others. You know, part of the work that we do so intentional is addressing the whole person. So the spiritual, the psychological, the emotional, and the relational. And so it's very intimate. It didn't work very one-to-one. But this, yeah, this event will it's all all the proceeds will go to help us to continue to to operate and to bring that gift to the church.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. Uh I was, I mean, these types of events have to happen for work to continue, you know. And um, so it's gonna be in Lafayette. When is it gonna be held?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, so Friday, April 17th at the new Calvary Creek Event Center in Bruce Art on Garber Road. Okay. From 6 to 10 PM.

SPEAKER_03

Okay. So a good fun night out.

SPEAKER_02

A good fun night out for a good mission. That's right.

SPEAKER_03

And where people can go to get m like to get more info, or is it a ticket type situation like you buy your ticket to go to you can buy tickets, you can purchase a table of eight, or you can sponsor the event if you can't make it and you want to just support our work.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Um, yeah, and so you can go to our website is www.redbird.love, l-o-v-e. And if you look in at the top of the page, there's you know, the tab, click on events, and it's gonna be under there. It's Boogie with the birdie.

Why The Red Bird Matters

SPEAKER_03

That's so cute. I I like the whole concept of it. And a red bird too, like that has to be a symbolism, I'm sure. I love it, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

It is, and you uh so you guys know sweet Cecilia, Laura Hubile. Okay, so Laura Hubile wrote a song called The Red Bird Flies, and she wrote it after the 2015 theater shooting. And in that song, she talks about five people who were very impactful in her life. The first was uh an aunt, our cousin, I think. The second was um Ivy Thibodeau, so she was killed after the Carrie Underwood concert, and I'm very good friends with her mom. And then it was uh her dad, and then Macy and Gillian from the theater shooting. And she talks about how every time she sees the cardinal fly and she talks like the red bird, yeah, like she thinks of these people in her life. And it's commonly associated, people associate grief with with red birds, but also too, our church has cardinals, so it's kind of like so many times, so many signs and tie-ins there.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, yeah, that's so special. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to just spread awareness about this. Um, and anybody listening that has been affected some kind of way by you know the tragedy of infant loss. Um reach loss. Or child yeah, child loss. Period. You're right. Yeah. Um reach out to uh and go on the website and get get some help and and I'm sure there's resources there that can connect you with um someone, maybe even around you that you're not aware of, you know. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01

And I'm sure they always need volunteers too, or you know, people to help them out with their ministry too. So I mean I might be speaking, yeah. You know, I don't know if if that's something that you'll do too, but I think uh it's important for people to to feel connected in a way, even even if it is grief, you know, that they can relate to somebody and find somebody to talk to. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02

And Father Harrington and Church Point just established a flock. So there's leaders in that and y'all community now that are serving. They they hosted, I think last year for the first time, their massive remembrance, and they did it again at the beginning of this year.

SPEAKER_03

They sure did our remembrance.

SPEAKER_02

So we partnered with them with that. So that's part of the work that we do. It's not only like ministering one-to-one, but it's helping leaders develop support in their community because you know, when a tragedy happens, uh it's it's so easy for people to kind of just get lost in that shuffle just because it's it's so intense and so and so intimate and private. And so having someone in your parish that can be a representative that can continue that support after the funeral is beautiful. And that's Father Harrington was adamant about getting that set up that we got that situated for him.

SPEAKER_01

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, I love that.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I did hear, I knew I had heard about it before. Yeah, within our community.

SPEAKER_03

Now I'm remembering it was that mass of remembrance, but it was put on by Red Bird. Uh-huh. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. So, oh, thank you so much for uh for coming on today and sharing with everybody as far as as far as the Cardinal Flies. Yeah, right. Um, and just being with us today and talking about y'all mission because this is truly important. And um, I hope we can get help get that word out.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, exactly. Is there anything else that you wanted to add that we didn't discuss?

SPEAKER_02

No, just uh gratitude for you guys for allowing me to come on. I I've been a fan from afar. Y'all are funny and everybody is going through suffering good laughs. So I appreciate the joy that you bring into people's lives. And yeah, just thank you. Continue to use your humor, your gift to like glorify God. I love that. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, we'll keep doing our thing and and you keep doing your thing. It's all it's all kingdom work. It all it looks different, but it's all the hands and feet of of Jesus. So that's right. We'll be safe on your trip too. And um, we'll hopefully we'll get to talk to you again later and and get updates and things like that because I know so much good is coming out of what y'all are doing.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, for sure.

SPEAKER_03

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03

Well, if you guys can make it, we have tickets for y'all waiting at the door. Oh man, I I so wish we could. My little girl's birthday is that weekend, and I'm like, oh man, I know.

SPEAKER_01

It's always something.

SPEAKER_03

It's always something, Kelly. You know, life.

SPEAKER_01

But we know you're gonna have a great turnout. So uh thank you so much for being on. Um and uh I guess we'll wrap it up.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, yeah, we'll wrap it up. All right, thank you, Kelly. Thank you. Bye-bye.

unknown

Bye-bye.

Closing Words And How To Connect

SPEAKER_03

All right, well, thank you uh for listening. And uh it listen, if you have experienced any type of loss uh of a child, just know that you're not alone and that there's people out there that you know you could benefit from connecting with and use an organization like Red Bird Ministries to um to get some encouragement and just you know survive. Sometimes you just survive through through this, you know, but with the help of others and with Jesus and and and God at the the center of it, you know. Um all right, well let's thank our sponsor for this month, Chris Logan Media. Chris Logan Media.

SPEAKER_01

He puts on our podcast, he does that, they do a great job, and um we just we just kind of show up here and and then we get to chat with you and and talk about things we want to talk about and they make it happen for us and for you. So if you are someone looking for services for a podcast, if you're looking for like uh social media help with your business to grow your business, uh y'all contact Chris Logan Media at Chris LoganMedia.com. Thank y'all so much for listening this week.

SPEAKER_00

Thanks for joining us on Coffee Talk with Kindlet. Hope you enjoyed your cup of coffee and don't forget to subscribe and share with your friends.