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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
Digital Echoes, Human Hearts; Turning Loss into Legacy
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
On day one of Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, we explore how postvention becomes prevention—through families who consent to share a loved one’s device so the Black Box Project can detect real-world patterns that help save lives.
Kim Burditt Bartlett, MSW — She is a suicide loss sibling and Senior Manager of Family Engagement for Stop Soldier Suicide’s Black Box Project. She creates trauma-informed resources and co-founded Sibling Strong Retreats.
What is the Black Box Project is (plainly):
A research and care initiative at Stop Soldier Suicide that, with family consent, analyzes data from devices of people who died by suicide to identify behavioral patterns and risk signals. Those insights are used to build models and interventions that reach others sooner. The project recently released its first findings (“The White Letter" - just released Aug 2025)
Want to consider sending your loved one's device?
REACH KIM DIRECTLY HERE kim.burditt@stopsoldiersuicide.org
or at Direct phone: 919-275-0045
Why this matters today:
- Postvention isn’t just legacy; done right, it directly informs intervention and prevention.
- Families are not just “donors of data”—they’re co-authors of new pathways to care.
- September is noisy; this is signal.
In this episode we cover:
- Kim’s brother Jon, and the path from personal loss to system-level change.
- How families are engaged, consent is handled, and what “dignity-first” looks like in practice.
- What the first findings suggest about detectable shifts before a death—and the limits of what data can and can’t say.
- The core thesis: postvention → pattern → earlier intervention → prevention.
- Practical ways civilians (not just military families) can learn, share, or contribute to this work.
Resources & links mentioned (or omitted):
- Stop Soldier Suicide — Black Box Project overview (learn, participate, or donate a device): [stopsoldiersuicide.org/blackboxproject]
Stop Soldier Suicide/Black Box Project - Sibling grief: unique burdens, overlooked needs, and why peer connection matters --Sibling Strong Retreats (Kim’s work for bereaved siblings). Sibling
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💜 The Leftover Pieces is support central for grieving hearts.
🔗 Stay connected: Join my free email community for weekly check-ins, resources, and encouragement.
🌟 For moms: Explore the $9 Lighthouse Community — safe connection, tools, and hope.
🛠 Resources for all grievers: Start here.
🤝 One-on-one grief coaching for moms after child loss to suicide: Learn more here.
📞 Need help now? If you or someone you love is struggling with suicidal thoughts, dial 988 in the U.S. & Canada, or text HOME to 741741.