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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
Grief Season Prep: Permission Language That Travels
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TODAY --Holidays and anniversaries come with scripts you didn’t write. Permission language lets you carry your truth into rooms that may not know how to hold it.
Journal prompt: “One event I’m resizing this season is… I’ll protect my energy by saying…”
Even before the day arrives, give yourself a flicker of relief by writing one sentence you can actually say out loud: “I’m keeping things simple this year.” Then rebuild by placing that sentence where your future self will find it—save it as a text snippet, pin it in notes, or draft it to your ally with, “If I freeze, please echo this for me.” Finally, step by using the line once in a low-stakes context (rescheduling coffee, leaving a call early) so your nervous system remembers it works when the stakes are higher.
Choose-your-energy menu:
- Hollow (low): Choose one sentence and save it to notes. Read it once aloud.
- Healing (medium): Send your line to one ally and ask them to back you up if needed.
- Becoming (higher): Use the line once this week in a gentle situation and log how your body felt after.
To end today:
Permission isn’t about winning arguments; it’s about staying intact. Clear sentences shrink the distance between what you feel and what you say, which lowers the cost of showing up. Some people may not love your limits, and that’s information—not a mandate to abandon yourself. Practice now, in easy places, so your words are ready when the room gets loud.
Exhale. Keep what serves you; leave the rest. I’ll be here again tomorrow. 💜
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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.