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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
Edit Your Grief Practices: Review, Keep, Drop, Adjust
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
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TODAY -- Integration is mostly editing—conserving what helps, quietly retiring what doesn’t.
Journal prompt: “If I gave my energy a budget, I’d spend more on… and less on…”
Scan this month for flickers that actually eased a day—witnessing, one brick finished, a boundary honored, light as companion—and keep them on purpose. Rebuild with a quick three-column check: KEEP (works), DROP (drains), ADJUST (tweak). Aim for three bullets total; simple wins. Then step by committing to one change—schedule the keeper as a repeating block, remove a drainer from the calendar, or place an object (candle, water bottle, bracelet) where it will cue the tweak.
Choose-your-energy menu:
- Hollow (low): Write one KEEP item. Stop there.
- Healing (medium): Do the full three-column check and circle one line.
- Becoming (higher): Put the circled item on your calendar with a repeat.
To end today:
Editing your grief life is an act of respect—for your person and for your nervous system. After suicide loss, you don’t owe the world the version of you that bleeds the most to prove you loved them. Keep what steadies you, drop what drains you, and adjust the practices that almost work. This is not giving up; it’s maturing your care. Let the metrics be honest: Did I breathe easier? Did recovery time shorten? Did I feel even a sliver more like myself? Put the keepers on repeat and let the rest go without a courtroom trial. Your energy is finite and precious; spend it where love can actually build something.
Exhale. Keep what serves you; leave the rest. I’ll be here again tomorrow. 💜
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Get THE Leftover Pieces APP & don't miss anything! CLICK HERE
💜 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.