Blinded by Grief

Thirty seconds can change everything. We talk about that moment when a doctor says “leukemia,” and life instantly splits into before and after, with grief arriving long before loss ever does. Sitting together, we unpack how grief reshapes your mind and your faith, and why learning to walk with your head up can matter when you are desperate for meaning and you do not want to miss a later date explanation.

Becky Holsey shares the story of her daughter, Laura, diagnosed with infant leukemia at four months old. She takes us through the early symptoms that would not resolve, the blood work that came back “through the roof,” and the rapid pivot into pediatric cancer care in New Orleans. We talk about what it means to parent in a hospital room, keep a bag packed, live around blood counts and immune risk, and try to stay connected to siblings while COVID restrictions make an already isolating season even harder.

As Laura’s treatment unfolds, Becky describes remission, relapse, and the terrifying curveball of cancer changing forms in a way even specialists had not seen. We also go where many conversations avoid: the breakdown moments, the guilt, the survival-mode compartmentalizing, and the shift from praying for healing to praying for peace when hospice at home becomes the path. Along the way, we reflect on grief waves, birthdays, signs like sunflowers, and why “you are not going backward” can be the truest thing someone tells you.

If you’re navigating child loss grief, anticipatory grief, or the aftermath of a cancer journey, we hope this brings language to what you feel and reminds you that love can still guide the next step. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube, share this with someone who needs it, and leave a review so more families can find grief support when it matters most.

The worst moments don’t arrive with a warning, they arrive with a phone call you replay for the rest of your life. Miles and Katelyn Johnson join us to share their son Walker’s story, the day he drowned while Miles was offshore, and the brutal, surreal hours that followed as family, first responders, and hospital teams fought for a miracle.

We talk honestly about what happens after the words “brain dead” enter the room, including the decision to say yes to organ donation. Katelyn and Miles explain why it was the clearest choice they could make in the middle of unimaginable pain, and how Walker went on to save three lives while also contributing to medical research. If you’ve searched for conversations about child loss grief, traumatic flashbacks, drowning tragedy, and organ donation legacy, their perspective is both heartbreaking and grounding.

The conversation also goes deeper into what people rarely name out loud: two parents can love the same child with the same intensity and still grieve in completely different ways. We unpack delayed grief, keeping a household moving for surviving children, parenting after loss, and why support groups and community care matter when your world stops but life keeps demanding answers. We end with practical hope for moms and dads who are newly grieving, including faith, communication, and learning to look up for signs instead of walking through life with your head down.

If Walker’s story moves you, subscribe, share this with someone who needs it, and leave a review so more grieving families can find support when they need it most.

“Time heals all” sounds comforting until you’re the one living in the fog of loss. We talk honestly about why that phrase can hurt, what actually changes as days pass, and why healing has less to do with the calendar and more to do with support, language, and the work we do with our grief. We also share how early grief can feel like shock and disorientation, then shift into a deeper kind of pain as reality sets in and routines, milestones, and triggers start hitting differently. 

We dig into the myths people repeat when they do not know what to say: the pressure to move on, the fear that feeling your emotions will make you lose control, and the expectation that grief should look “better” after a few months. We unpack the five stages of grief and why that framework is often misunderstood in bereavement and child loss, including why “acceptance” can feel impossible and why “acknowledgement” may be a more truthful word. Along the way, we talk about inherited grief language from family systems, how trauma responses can show up in everyday moments, and why year two can be harder than year one. 

We also offer practical, human alternatives to clichés: staying present, walking forward one step at a time, and creating space where grief and joy can coexist. If you’re grieving or supporting someone who is, this conversation gives you clearer words, a more realistic map of mourning, and permission to stop performing wellness for other people’s comfort. Subscribe to Blinded by Grief, share this with someone who needs it, and leave a review with the one line you wish more people understood about grief.

Nobody hands you a rulebook for the moment you have to walk out of a hospital without your child and somehow make it to your car. We start Blinded by Grief by telling the real story behind The RescYOU Group and why we built a nonprofit grief support organization in Lafayette, Louisiana for families who lose a child between ages 1 and 18. I’m Reecie Gilmore, and I share how losing my son Clint left me isolated, then eventually led me to a community of hope through organ and tissue donation advocacy and the belief that something good had to come from the worst day. 

From there, we get specific about what families actually need when grief hits: help with funeral expenses like burial and cremation, plus emotional support that includes counseling, grief coaching, and sibling support. We talk about the gap that happens when resources stop at infant loss, and how COVID became a strange “pause” that pushed this mission from an idea to a fully opened lifeline. 

You’ll also hear from Becky, our family advocate, as she shares the terrifying phone call of an infant cancer diagnosis, the long months of fighting infantile leukemia, and the identity question that comes after loss: Who am I now, and what do I do with this love? Shannon, our family services director, shares the shock of losing her six-year-old son Isaiah to drowning, why child loss can feel lonely even in grief groups, and how “me too” spaces help parents be honest without judgment. We end with one of the most overlooked topics: grieving and driving, and why brain fog can make the road genuinely dangerous. 

If you want a podcast about child loss bereavement that’s honest, practical, faith-aware, and rooted in real community support, subscribe, share this with someone who needs it, and leave a review so more families can find us.

One phone call. A knock at the door. A doctor walking into the room. These are the moments that split life into “before” and “after,” and if you’ve found us, there’s a good chance your story includes one of them. We’re Reecie, Shannon, and Becky, and we’re not speaking about grief from theory. We’re speaking as parents who have lived child loss and had to figure out how to keep breathing when the unimaginable became real.

Reecie lost her two-year-old son, Clinton Ryan. Shannon lost her son, Isaiah. Becky lost her daughter, Laura. Between us is 33 years of combined grief experience, and what we learned the hard way is simple: there’s no manual for this. When you’re blinded by grief, the world expects you to “be strong,” make decisions, answer texts, and return to life as if you can see clearly. You can’t. So we’re building what we wish we’d had, an emotional compass for the first steps and a roadmap for the long road that follows.

Blinded by Grief, brought to you by the Rescue Group, is here to be relatable, informational, and genuinely useful. We talk about grief support that respects your reality, bereavement resources that don’t feel empty, and the promise that you don’t have to travel alone, no matter what your loss looks like. If you’re a grieving parent, a friend trying to show up well, or someone searching for language for what hurts, you belong here.

Subscribe to Blinded by Grief, share this with someone who needs it, and leave a review so more families can find support when everything changes.