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
Anne Moss Rogers: Emotionally Naked
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Today we kick off Season 3 of the podcast with a heartfelt, poignant conversation with author and TEDx Speaker Anne Moss Rogers. In 2015 her son Charles died by suicide and her world changed. Anne Moss shares her story and the work she is doing now in honor of Charles. In her own words:
"Anne Moss is her first name. It’s a southern thing. She is an Emotionally Naked® motivational speaker who captures hearts and fills them with hope.
Despite her family’s best efforts, Anne Moss’s 20-year-old son Charles died by suicide on June 5, 2015, after many years of struggle with anxiety, depression, and ultimately addiction. Anne Moss started a blog, EmotionallyNaked.com, that has reached millions and chronicled her family’s tragedy in a newspaper article that went viral.
After receiving a message from a young lady named Lauren who wrote that one of her blog posts save her life, Anne Moss sold her digital marketing business and followed her purpose of speaking on mental health topics.
She has been featured in the New York Times and was the first suicide loss survivor ever invited to speak at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).
Originally from North Carolina, she graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill and lives in Richmond, Virginia, with her husband, Randy. They raised two sons, the late Charles Aubrey, 20, and Richard, a filmmaker living his dream in LA.
Anne Moss is a certified suicide prevention trainer, NAMI Virginia Board member, 2 End the Stigma (addiction) board member, and YWCA 2019 Pat Asch fellow. She is the author of two books, the award-winning memoir, Diary of a Broken Mind and Emotionally Naked: A Teacher’s Guide to Preventing Suicide and Recognizing Students at Risk with co-writer Kim O’Brien Ph.D., LICSW."
You can find her at:
Anne Moss Rogers Speaker Site
OR
The Blog at Anne Moss.com
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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
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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
🔗 Stay connected: Join my email community for weekly support, resources, and honest conversations.
🛠 Start here: Explore website for suicide loss resources for early grief, family support, and next steps.
🤝 For moms: One-on-one grief coaching for mothers navigating life after child loss.
📞 Need support right now? If you or someone you love is struggling, call or text 988 (U.S. & Canada), or text HOME to 741741.