On this episode of the Filled With Gold Widow Podcast, we sit down with Lysandra Vander Hart. Lysandra is a widow, holistic dietitian, and mother of two little girls who have fueled her quest for a safe home environment for her family and everyone she meets. As her young family has been forever touched by cancer and with more than 80,000 new chemicals introduced since WWII - only 200 of which have been tested on humans and approximately 11 banned in the US - she is grateful to be able to shar...

This week we chat with Sheila Hoover on the Filled With Gold Widow Podcast! Sheila has a Ph.D. in Adult Education and 20 years of experience in academia as an education specialist making information accessible in creative and engaging ways. She wrote the book "Helping Through Heartache: An Easy Guide to Supporting Anyone Who is Grieving" in the years after the death of her husband. After experiencing what she describes as a confusing mashup of people's reactions, she realized that many people...

Are you thinking about dipping your toe into the dating pool? Well, never fear - Barbara Kenyon is here to help! Finding true love again after being widowed can be really scary business. Barbara Kenyon knows a thing or two about that. After being married for nine years to the love of her life, and four months after the birth of their first child, Barbara's husband died from pancreatic cancer. Five years after being widowed, Barbara married the new love of her life. And, for the la...

Did you ever wish you had a guide to support and help you through “all things widow”? Well, Kim Murray wrote it! Kim Murray is the creator of the popular website Widow 411, which offers information and resources on topics like grief, finances, relationships, and self-care for widows on a quest to make widowhood suck a little less. Kim also created the online course, The Ultimate Survival Guide for Widows, with detailed instructions, worksheets and checklists to help widows tackle the crushin...

On this week’s episode of the Filled With Gold Widow Podcast, Melissa interviews Jenny Lisk. Jenny is a bestselling author and widowed mom who is dedicated to helping widowed parents increase their family's well-being. In her book, Future Widow, Jenny draws on her personal and professional experience to provide a real-life guide for surviving and thriving while raising grieving children. Her show, The Widowed Parent Podcast, draws on over 100 interviews with experts, seasoned widowed pa...

Special guest, Rob Kenney, joins the Filled With Gold Widow Podcast! Rob started his “Dad, How Do I?” YouTube channel in April 2020. He thought he would help 30 or 40 people learn some basic skills. A month and a half later his channel went viral and quickly grew to over 1 million subscribers. Now, a year later, he has over 3 million subscribers watching his wholesome “how to” videos. Such a fantastic resource for those widows who are solo parenting out there so listen in as Rob a...

Linda Shanti McCabe and I had a very heartfelt and hopeful conversation about our widow and solo-parenting experiences. Linda is a licensed clinical psychologist, recovery coach, artist, author, imperfect mom, widow and person travelling with grief. She has been passionate about helping women recover from eating disorders for the past 20 years, and now, helping grievers move forward. Listen in and find out about: -What’s up with the long list of Disney movies where the...

Autumn Toelle-Jackson is the award-winning author of Boldly into the Darkness: Living with Loss, Growing with Grief & Holding onto Happiness. She has lived a life of love and loss, filled with happiness and marked by tragedy. Labels are too simple, but they do have meaning and they do tell part of her story: wife, widow, mother, survivor. The loss of a husband, a beloved cousin and mentor, her daughter, and miscarriages have left scars on her soul and memorial tattoos on her body, but Aut...

On this episode of the Filled With Gold Widow Podcast I get to sit down and chat with Mel Shore! Mel is a woman and widow of many talents! She is a professional pianist, producer, and composer, a young widow, co-creator of the podcast, Widow We Do Now? & The Widow Wives Club online support group, and is creator of the Drömkatt healing music YouTube channel, specifically customized for grievers. Mel is also a certified life coach, dog agility enthusiast, and black diamond skier, and ...

On this episode I chat with Carrie Benedict Foley who is a widow, a mom of 5 children and a licensed funeral director. Carrie represents the sixth generation of Benedicts in funeral service. Her family owns Westchester Funeral Home in Eastchester, NY.  Carrie’s husband Danny died on February 22, 2020 after a 1 year battle with 9/11 related pancreatic cancer.  He was a firefighter with FDNY and worked many months on “the pile” at Ground Zero.  

Listen in as Carrie and I cover a lot of ground together.  Listen in and find out about:

- How Carrie & Danny met - the exchange of pager numbers, their love of country music

- Danny and his brother Tommy were NY firefighters on 9/11

- Danny’s physical and emotional trauma from working at Ground Zero

- Carrie’s incredibly unique perspective as a widow and a funeral director

- Gilda’s Club was a huge help to Carrie & her kids - supports families with a cancer diagnosis/death

- The chaos of grieving, working, parenting during Covid & delayed grieving after the quarantine

- Self-care in widowhood = yoga, wine, cheese & tennis (not all at the same time though)

“Accept the help. If someone is offering you help, take the help.”

- Carrie Foley

Links

instagram: carriefoley6

facebook: Carrie Benedict Foley

twitter: @CarrieBFoley6

LinkedIn: Carrie Foley

www.westchesterfuneralhome.com

Instagram: westchesterfuneralhome

Facebook: Westchester Funeral Home, Inc. 

https://gildasclubnyc.org

This episode is brought to you by:

Filled With Gold monthly self-care subscription box for widows. Listeners get the following discounts plus FREE shipping - use coupon code:

• PODCAST25 for $25 off your 3-month subscription
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