13 Days of Silence: Living in The After

What happens after you survive something that was supposed to kill you?

In this episode of 13 Days of Silence: Living in the After, Teri Busse sits down with author, patient advocate, speaker, and septic shock survivor Christina A. Cole.

After a medical crisis led to sepsis and septic shock, Christina’s life changed dramatically. She survived cardiac arrest, multiple organ failure, months of hospitalization, numerous surgeries, amputations, and an exhausting road through rehabilitation and recovery.

But surviving the emergency was only the beginning.

Christina talks candidly about the part of survival people don’t always see: grief for the body and life you had before, medical trauma, disability, rehabilitation, motherhood, learning to navigate a complicated healthcare system, and rebuilding an identity after everything changes.

Her experience became the foundation for her memoir, Through the Ashes, a story of catastrophic illness, resilience, family, grief, healing, and finding purpose after survival.

This conversation goes beyond the medical crisis and into what comes afterward: recovery, advocacy, rebuilding, and learning how to live inside a life you never expected to have.

Connect with Christina A. Cole

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/christinacole-author
Instagram: @chris_ck17
Facebook: facebook.com/ChristinaAColeAuthor
Website: Christinaacole.com

13 Days of Silence: Living in the After explores what happens after the moment that divides your life into before and after — and how people learn to live inside everything that comes next.

In this episode of 13 Days of Silence: Living in the After, Teri Lyn sits down with Katrina Burns, Chair and Program Director of the Dear Casi Foundation, to talk about Casi Ann Pogue, the woman whose disappearance changed an entire family and ultimately became the catalyst for something much larger.

Casi has been missing since July 5, 2020. For the people who love her, living in the after has meant living without answers—continuing to search, advocate, hope, and somehow continue living while someone they love is still missing.

Katrina shares Casi's story, what it is like for a family to navigate the world of missing persons, and how that experience exposed enormous gaps in resources and support for families searching for someone they love.

Those gaps helped give rise to the Dear Casi Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to helping families of missing people with practical guidance, awareness campaigns, search resources, personalized webpages, fundraising support, community mobilization, and connections to organizations and technology that can assist in searches. Katrina now leads the foundation's family-support efforts and is often one of the first people families encounter when they don't know where to turn.

This conversation is about Casi, but it's also about ambiguous loss—what happens when there is no ending, no answer, and no clear path forward—and what can happen when one family's search becomes a mission to make sure other families don't have to navigate that uncertainty alone.

Connect with & support the Dear Casi Foundation

Dear Casi Foundation website
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 833-981-CASI (2274)
Katrina: [email protected]
Request help / Contact Dear Casi
Support the Dear Casi Foundation

13 Days of Silence: Living in the After
Hosted by Teri Lyn

Emma & Magnolia: Living Out Loud After LossIn this episode of 13 Days of Silence: Living in the After, Emma shares the story of her daughter, Magnolia, whose earthly spirit transcended during childbirth, forever dividing Emma’s life into before and after.From very early in her grief, Emma made a choice to live it out loud. She shared Magnolia, spoke openly about her loss, and allowed people to see grief as it actually was—not polished, hidden, or confined to the moments when others were comfortable with it.We talk about Magnolia, the circumstances surrounding her transition, those first days and weeks afterward, and what it means for Emma to continue being Magnolia’s mother while learning how to live in the after.Emma also shares how her life and spirituality evolved after Magnolia’s transition. Today, through Magnolia’s Way, she works as a psychic and somatic medium, energy healer, and grief alchemist—work created in honor of Magnolia’s legacy.This is a conversation about child loss, motherhood, spirituality, grieving out loud, and finding your own way forward while continuing to carry the person you love with you.Connect with Emma & Magnolia’s Way:Instagram: @magnolias.way.mediumshipMagnolia’s Way- msha.ke/magnoliasway🎙️ 13 Days of Silence: Living in the AfterHosted by Teri Lyn

Sandy & Austin: More Than the Way He Died

Before fentanyl became part of Austin’s story, he was Sandy’s son.

In this episode of 13 Days of Silence: Living in the After, Sandy introduces us to Austin, the person he was, the memories she carries, and the life that existed long before the worst day.

Sandy speaks openly about addiction, fentanyl, and the devastating reality of losing a child. She also talks about something families affected by addiction know all too well: how easily the circumstances of someone’s death can begin to overshadow everything about the life they lived.

But Austin was more than addiction.

He was a son. He was loved. He had a personality, relationships, memories, struggles, and an entire life that cannot be reduced to the way he died.

Sandy also shares what it means to remain Austin’s mother while learning how to carry his absence. One thing she said during our conversation captures that beautifully:

“We don’t stop being their parent. We just learn how to love them differently.”

This is a conversation about addiction, fentanyl, child loss, grief, and refusing to allow the worst chapter of someone’s story to become their entire story.

This is Sandy and Austin, who he was, what happened, and what life has looked like since.

This is living in the after.

🎙️ 13 Days of Silence: Living in the After
Hosted by Teri Lyn

If you’ve ever wondered what makes a mother create a podcast about living in the after, this is where it begins.

Before I could sit across from others and ask them to tell me about their “after,” I had to learn how to live in mine.

In this special bonus episode, I share my own story—the murder of my son, Rylee, the thirteen days of silence that followed, and the life I had to figure out how to live when those thirteen days ended.

This conversation originally aired on Matcha Minutes, hosted by Joe Wilson, who graciously gave me permission to share our full conversation here.

Thank you to Joe Wilson and Matcha Minutes for creating the space for me to tell this story.

Before I could give others a place to tell their stories, I had to tell mine.

Nicole & Claude: A Daughter Creating a Legacy

Before Claude became the reason for one of the hardest days of Nicole’s life, he was her dad.

He loved music, hockey, fishing, Halloween, Clint Eastwood, the outdoors, and teaching his children about trees. He was quiet, sensitive, hardworking, and the kind of person who would help someone else even when his own family didn’t have much.

In this episode of 13 Days of Silence: Living in the After, Nicole introduces us to Claude before sharing the phone call that changed everything when she learned her father had died by suicide.

She talks openly about never having the opportunity to see him and say goodbye, the guilt of a phone call she wishes she had made, the questions that followed his death, and the way grief fractured relationships within her family for years.

Nicole also shares something that became central to our conversation: in many ways, she learned more about her father after he died than she knew about him while he was alive.

More than a decade later, Nicole has turned part of her grief into purpose through the Suicide Loss Memorial Foundation, creating connection and meaningful spaces for others affected by suicide loss.

This isn't simply a story about suicide.

It's about Claude.

It's about a daughter continuing to discover and honor her father.

And it's about what Nicole has chosen to build while living in the after.

🎙️ 13 Days of Silence: Living in the After
Hosted by Teri Lyn

Michelle & Lee -Part Two: Living in the After

In Part One, Michelle shared the day everything changed, the moment what she believed was a diabetic emergency became the unimaginable loss of her husband, Lee.

Part Two begins where death ends and the after begins.

Within hours, Michelle was being asked about organ donation while still trying to comprehend that Lee was gone. She shares the painfully ordinary details that follow an extraordinary loss: searching through the bag containing his belongings, making decisions no one is prepared to make, and eventually receiving an autopsy report that brought answers, and new information she never expected.

But grief didn't end with those first days.

Michelle opens up about the should-haves and could-haves, the questions we ask ourselves after someone dies, and what it has meant to build a life that continues without Lee physically in it.

This is the part of loss we don't always talk about.

The funeral ends. The phone eventually stops ringing. Everyone else's life continues.

And somehow, ours has to continue too.

This is Michelle and Lee's story of living in the after.

🎙️ 13 Days of Silence: Living in the After
Hosted by Teri Lyn

Michelle & Lee ... Part One: Before Everything Changed

Before there was grief, there was a life together.

In Part One of Michelle and Lee’s story on 13 Days of Silence: Living in the After, Michelle introduces us to Lee, not simply as the man she lost, but as the husband, partner, and person she loved.

She shares their life together, the memories that still make her smile, and the ordinary moments that become extraordinary once someone is gone.

Then came the day everything changed.

What Michelle initially believed was a diabetic emergency became something she never imagined she would face. In this first part of our conversation, we walk with her through those final hours and the moment she learned Lee was gone.

But this podcast isn’t about reducing someone to the day they died.

It’s about who they were before, what happened when everything changed, and eventually… what it means to keep living in the after.

🎙️ 13 Days of Silence: Living in the After
Hosted by Teri Lyn

Part Two continues Michelle and Lee’s story.