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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
Suicide by Firearm; Two Survivors United for Change
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Today, I sit down with two survivors left behind after losing their loved ones to suicide. Debbie lost her father Don 12 years ago, and Adrianna's brother Luc died in May of 2017 - both died by suicide with a firearm. These ladies are both a part of the "Everytown for Gun Safety" organization - although in different roles and capacities. Their stories are meaningful and deserve an attentive listen.
Today we discuss:
- Sibling AND Parent Suicide Loss
- Advocacy for Gun Safety as it relates to suicides
- Gun Safety initiatives, ERPO's, Education and more being done to help reduce death by firearm
- Why working with other survivors like yourself, finding a COMMUNITY, is helpful in healing
You can find "EVERYTOWN FOR GUN SAFETY" HERE
to Volunteer (if you are not a survivor) Text - READY to 64433
Want to GET INVOLVED? FIND SUPPORT? Text SURVIVOR to 64433
their SURVIVORS NETWORK HERE
Debbie Weir (She/Hers, Washington DC) - Debbie is the Chief Mission Officer at Everytown for Gun Safety. She works to ensure that those in the gun violence prevention movement, whether volunteers, survivors of gun violence, or her colleagues, have a better understanding of trauma and the different (and less obvious) forms it can take. Debbie is in leadership for the organization as well as the Survivor Team and is a great representative for us. She also identifies as a survivor of gun violence - she lost her father to firearm suicide.
Adriana Pentz (She/Hers, Sleepy Hollow, NY): Adriana is a Fellow with the Everytown Survivor Network. Adriana's brother, Luc-John, took his life with a gun on May 23rd, 2017, in Wallingford, CT. Adriana is a volunteer on the community outreach committee of the Moms Demand Action chapter in Westchester.
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My website "The Leftover Pieces; Rebuilding You" is LIVE and that means my different SUPPORT SPACE Options are available and much more will be coming in 2022
My first two books in the "Facing Life After Suicide" series are available on Amazon
The website will be at www.theleftoverpieces.com
If you, or someone you know, is struggling with suicidal thoughts PLEASE reach out:
The National Suicide Lifeline is there for you
IN a crisis you can also TEXT--->
TEXT the word "HOME" to 741741 in the USA
in Canada TEXT 686868
in the UK TEXT 85258
And Grievers, I am always here. You can find me at The Leftover Pieces
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