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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
When the Mind Breaks: A Mother, A Doctor, and the Reality of Psychosis
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In this episode, I’m joined by Colleen Kraft—a pediatrician of 36 years and a mother of three—who shares the story of her son Tim, who died by suicide in February of 2022 at the age of 31.
Tim’s journey included late-onset schizophrenia, beginning with early psychosis in his late twenties. Together, we explore what it looks like to love someone through serious mental illness, the challenges families face within the mental health system, and the difficult reality of navigating care when answers are limited.
Colleen brings both her medical insight and her lived experience as a mother into this conversation, helping us better understand psychosis, its impact, and why it can lead to dangerous or unpredictable outcomes.
We also talk about the questions so many of us carry after loss—the what ifs, the unknowns—and how we begin to move forward while still holding love, grief, and connection.
This conversation is both informative and deeply human—offering insight, validation, and a reminder that you are not alone.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- Schizophrenia and Psychosis Action Alliance
https://sczaction.org/ - Podcast: Schizophrenia: Three Moms in the Trenches
https://schizophrenia3momsinthetrenches.buzzsprout.com/ - Norway’s Patient Pathways for Mental Health & Substance Use
https://www.helsenorge.no/en/psykisk-helse/patient-pathway-for-mental-health-and-substance-abuse/ - EPI-NET (Early Psychosis Intervention Network)
https://nationalepinet.org/ - Children and Screens: Digital Media & Youth Mental Health (Free Handbook)
https://www.childrenandscreens.org/newsroom/news/children-and-screens-announces-groundbreaking-handbook-on-digital-medias-impact-on-children-and-adolescents/ - Book: The Wild Edge of Sorrow by Francis Weller
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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.