Grief, Gratitude & The Gray in Between

Abigail Johnston is a daughter, mother, wife, and attorney who was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer in June of 2017, close on the heels of a early stage diagnosis in March of 2017. In reality, the breast cancer had already spread to Abigail's bones before she felt the lump in her breast. The first few months after her diagnosis were a whirlwind and full of many profound changes, but Abigail soon found her footing and started her blog "No Half Measures," where she talks about whatever comes to mind, within the lens of her Stage IV diagnosis. Abigail's boys, Liam and Malcolm, who were nearly 2 and nearly 4 at the time of her diagnosis, along with her husband, Elliot, make their own appearances in Abigail's advocacy since it truly is a family affair. In 2017, Abigail discovered that she inherited the ATM mutation and further testing has revealed other somatic mutations; this is now her focus of research and she bugs her doctors regularly with articles and new information.

For Abigail, advocacy is a whole life endeavor and she never does anything halfway. Abigail works with Metavivor as a Peer to Peer Advocate, with Living Beyond Breast Cancer as a Hear My Voice Advocate, with After Breast Cancer Diagnosis (ABCD) and she started her own non-profit, Connect IV Legal Services, to recruit attorneys to do pro bono legal work for Stage IV metastatic breast cancer patients. Abigail is an active member of her local support group, Y2B2 which is geared towards younger women with all kinds of cancer and is a co-administrator of a metastatic breast cancer community, Living Metastatic One Day at a Time, where she helps to organize the "Sister Buddy" program so that no member feels isolated or alone. Outside of cancer advocacy, Abigail serves as a room mom for her boys' teachers and is a board member of her local PTA, serving as a Parliamentarian.

Just by reading this bio you can see that Abigail is a remarkable woman. When you listen to this podcast you will feel inspired to live a more meaningful life as well as to redefine what success means to you.

Contact Abigail Johnston:

Her blog: http://www.NoHalfMeasures.blog

Fb: https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001483493968

Twitter: @AMJohnston1315

Instagram: @amj1315

LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/abigailjohnston

Contact Kendra Rinaldi to be a guest or for coaching:

http://www.griefgratitudeandthegrayinbetween.com

Music: http://www.rinaldisound.com

Logo: http://www.pamelawinningham.com

Production: Carlos Andres Londono

Rachel Engstrom M.S.W., C.H.E.S has written a groundbreaking memoir/self-book on her experience as a young cancer wife then widow. With the increasing number of young women and men becoming widows/widowers due to not only cancer and serious illnesses, but also now Covid 19, this resource is needed more now than ever. Rachel shares her journey in a raw and honest way, while providing step by step resources to help you navigate your own journey. Never before has there been a combination of the personal grit of the healthcare journey, along with steps on how to navigate treatment, diagnosis, the ins and outs of hospital life, employment, finances, insurance, self care, grief and loss and much more.

In this interview, Rachel shares how her husband was 35 when he was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. On their 8th wedding anniversary, just a year and a half after his diagnosis, he was admitted to the hospital again. He had lots of treatments including bone marrow transplant. Then 2 days after Rachel’s 31st birthday, she had to hold him as he was taken off life support.

She also shares about how she had endometriosis, and just 6 months after her husband’s passing, she had to undergo surgery. Now, not only was she grieving the death of her husband, but also the idea of ever being able to birth a child.

Part of her grief journey was writing a blog about her process and then this became a way to help others. She also joined the Leukemia Society Team and Training, where she trained to run a half marathon to raise funds towards this organization. This became one of her biggest outlets as well as her support group with people that could relate to what she was going through. Currently she is running for the Woman of The Year for the state of Minnesota to raise money for the Leukemia Society.

You can find “Wife, Widow, Now What? How I Navigated the Cancer World and How You Can Too,” here

https://www.amazon.com/Wife-Widow-Now-What-Navigated/dp/B08KBV5DBL/ref=nodl_#immersive-view_1601477867868 ,

as well as follow her on social media here: https://m.facebook.com/wife.widow.now.what/

Here is the Website To donate https://pages.lls.org/mwoy/mn/MN21/

Contact Kendra Rinaldi to be a guest or for coaching: http://www.griefgratitudeandthegrayinbetween.com

Music: http://www.rinaldisound.com

Logo: http://www.pamelawinningham.com

Production: Carlos Andres Londono

Camilo Russi es el fundador del Congreso Internacional de Cierre de Ciclos, el evento que, por primera vez en la historia, reunió 20,000 personas para hablar abiertamente sobre la muerte y aprender a vivir en paz duelos y cierres de ciclo.

Camilo es acompañante de duelo, guía de libertad personal, y líder en la educación sobre la muerte. Se entrenó como ingeniero, y hace más de una década se dedica al desarrollo humano. Hoy en día se especializa en revelar y reemplazar los patrones subconscientes que limitan tu experiencia de vida, incluyendo el hacer las paces con la muerte.

Camilo es conferencista internacional y ha creado capacitaciones para organizaciones multinacionales como Robert BOSCH, Telefónica Movistar, Google, Waze y Banorte.

Temas que hablamos:

Crisis que se viven en la vida sin uno darse cuenta.

-Rupturas de relaciones

-Muertes de seres queridos

-Cambio de ciudad

-Cambio de Trabajo

Nuestra vida se transfomra al cambiar el enfoque de mirar hacia afuera para buscar las respuestas y empezamos a reflexionar sobre nuestra vida.

También hablamos de como podemos acompañar a alguien que está pasando por un momento difícil o viviendo un duelo.

Pasos a tomar:

1. Comprender

2. Ausencia del juicio

3. Acompanar

Otro tema que tocamos es sobre sus vivencias personales con la muerte de seres queridos y también la carta que le escribió la muerte.

Contactate con Camilo http://www.instagram.com/bycamilorussi

IUna Carta De Truega Escrita por la Muerte: https://youtu.be/bIVZZL72NbA

Contacta a Kendra Rinaldi para coaching o para compartir tu historia en el podast: http://www.griefgratitudeandthegrayinbetween.com

Musica: http://www.rinaldimusic.com

Logo: http://www.pamelawinningham.com

Produccion; Carlos Andres Londono

Born in Cali, Colombia, Carolina Ravassa has appeared on The Affair opposite Dominic West, Mr. Robot with Bobby Cannavale & Rami Malek, and has done a few shorts with Reggie Watts. She produced, directed, and starred in the webseries Hispanglosaxon, which won an Imagen Award for Best Webseries. She is known for her voice work in the video games Overwatch (Sombra), Valorant (Raze), Grand Theft Auto V (Taliana Martinez), Max Payne III, Red Dead Redemption II, Just Cause 4 and voices on Big City Greens (Disney), Victor and Valentino (Cartoon Network), Loud House (Nickelodeon) and Netflix. She also worked on Step Up 3-D and Maybe Tomorrow.

In this podcast Carolina and I chat about her personal life, more specifically about the end of a ten year relationship at the same time as her character of Sombra, of Overwatch, was becoming very well known. Going to comic cons, being with fans and surrounded with outpouring of love and support, was a dichotomy to her emotional life at that time.

We talk about how people overlook "breakups" and think you "should move on" from them and not see that a breakup is just as hard as a divorce. There are so many layers of grief in breakups that are overlooked in society at times.

Learn more about Carolina Ravassa and the projects she's worked on:

www.carolinaravassa.com

www.hispanglosaxon.com

http://www.imdb.me/carolinaravassa

Contact Kendra Rinaldi to be a guest on the podcast or for a coaching session. https://www.griefgratitudeandthegrayinbetween.com/

Music: https://rinaldisound.com/

Logo: https://pamelawinningham.com/

Production: Carlos Andres Londono

Linzi Meaden lost her only sibling, Stuart, to suicide in June 2020. Totally unexpected and totally devastating for those left behind. To help with her grief, she has written a book “What Suicide Left Behind” due to be published on Amazon in May 2021, just shortly after their side by side birthdays, 28 & 29 April.

She has also created an online community for those grieving the loss of loved ones to suicide called “Paradisium” (which literally means “go into paradise”). The name came about because Stuart’s final online profile picture was changed to ‘escape to paradise’ on the day he went missing and Linzi finds solace in this, knowing he has reached his intended destination of peace. Paradisium offers online and offline activities to help with self healing such as art therapy, choir, writing, vlogs and live talks.

Linzi is using her new found voice to speak up about grief and suicide, especially to end the stigma surrounding this. She does this through her social media pages and website.

Contact Linzi Meaden: www.paradisium.co.uk

https://www.facebook.com/whatsuicideleftbehind

https://www.facebook.com/groups/whatsuicideleftbehind

https://www.instagram.com/linzi_meaden_suicide_grief/

Contact Kendra Rinaldi to be a guest or for coaching: http://www.griefgratitudeandthegrayinbetween.com

Music: http://www.rinaldisound.com

Logo: http://www.pamelawinningham.com

Production: Carlos Andres Londono

Susan Kendal became a widow, 6 years ago. Her husband passed suddenly of an unexpected heart attack while getting ready for work. Grief does occur in different times and 6 weeks after she and her husband got married, at 18 and 21, her best friend & brother-in-law died. So, their kids actually grew up their entire lives knowing about death. Which she feels it was probably good in retrospect.

She also shares her grief experience a few years after she became a widow when her dad succumbed to cancer and heart disease and both her brothers died as well.

She initially started Evolve for Widows to be a positive site for women who want to move forward. But, as she continued her involvement in the community (including coaching training), she's realized the biggest problem for anyone moving thru grief is the death taboo.

Those grieving are talking about death but no one else is!!

We hide in chat groups talking about our pain and loneliness because society has taught us to be afraid of speaking out because grief has a time limit.

So now she's trying to change that and open up the dialogue about DEATH as we have done for other taboo subjects like mental health, gay rights, infertility etc. She believes a dialogue that starts with children is ideal but we all must learn what NOT to say to someone who is grieving and how to hold space for someone who feels compelled to mention a loved one and lean in to death.

We shall all lose a loved one in our lifetime (actually probably more like 5 loved ones) so this is THE most important taboo to end.

Listen to this podcast as we dive into the topic of how Talking About Death Helps Normalize Grief.

Contact Susan Kendal: https://www.evolvebeyondgrief.com/

Contact Kendra Rinaldi to be a guest or for coaching: https://www.griefgratitudeandthegrayinbetween.com/

Music: https://www.rinaldisound.com

Logo: https://www.pamelawinningham.com

Production: Carlos Andres Londono

Joan Poggio is an independent filmmaker with over 20 years experience. Born and raised in Colombia, in 2004 he fell in love with Kenya while filming a series for Animal Planet Latin America. Since then he has lived in Nairobi with his family, and has travelled consistently around Africa telling unique and exciting stories.

Joan loves telling stories that depict the beauty, strength and contradiction of the human spirit, such as it the case of Kenyan warriors turned into marathon runners, Liberian environmental activists overturning their government, and young radicalized Muslim youth conflicted by their beliefs, to name a few. He enjoys working as a director, cinematographer, editor and colourist on documentary, feature film, music video and advertising. His work has been nominated, and garnered awards internationally and has been featured on local and international television, Netflix and Amazon Prime.

Check out Joan Poggio's Projects:

In 2021, as a fun creative exercise, he started a Film Diary in which he explores the mundane of daily events through short story telling.

https://www.youtube.com/user/joanpoggio/videos

Samples of his work can be seen at: https://vimeopro.com/joanpoggio/portfolio

He posts behind the scenes of his work and experiences as a filmmaker on: https://www.facebook.com/joanpoggiofilmmaker

Contact Kendra Rinaldi to be a guest: https://www.griefgratitudeandthegrayinbetween.com/

Music: https://rinaldisound.com/

Logo: https://pamelawinningham.com/

Production: Carlos Andres Londono

Victoria Moore became a widow in May 2019, after losing her husband Marcus to suicide. She never expected to be a widow at 37 and raise her 7 and 9 year old children on her own. Grieving the death of her husband was hard, but even harder was telling the children that their dad had died. In that moment she had to make a decision; Her children had lost their dad to suicide and she could not let them lose their mom to grief, so she had to set an example of how to grieve in a healthy way. She made a decision to turn her pain into purpose, and help others who were going through a similar journey. By harnessing her extensive background in yoga, mindfulness, NLP, Hypnotherapy, and an array of other mind/body modalities, she has turned her pain into a purpose by educating others on the importance of living happier and healthier.

Contact Victoria Moore: https://yogimami.com/

Contact Kendra Rinaldi to be a host or for discovery call or coaching session: https://www.griefgratitudeandthegrayinbetween.com/

Music: https://rinaldisound.com/

Logo: https://pamelawinningham.com/

Production: Carlos Andres Londono

Ana Milena Carrasco comparte con su historia de duelo después de la muerte de su madre. Ani vive en Estados Unidos, y pudo viajar a Colombia para estar con su madre en sus últimos días de vida. Al principio le era muy difícil compartir sobre su fallecimiento y revivir todas la emociones, pero a medida que pasa el tiempo, se ha dado cuenta que en realidad al contar su historia, limpia su alma.

Su duelo ha ido transformando a medida que Ani también ha incorporado diferentes herramientas para ayudarle en su proceso, incluyendo escuchar este podcast que le ayudo a darse cuenta de que muchos otros han vivido experiencias similares. Encontró también programas en YouTube que le ayudaron y escribiendo sus sentimientos. Estas herramientas no solo le ayudaron con su proceso de duelo del fallecimiento de su madre, si no también con sus emociones ante la separacion de su esposo.

Contacta a Ana Milena Carrasco: http://www.instagram.com/conte37

Contacta a Kendra Rinaldi para compartir tu historia en el podcast o para tener una sesión de coaching conmigo.

Música: http://www.rinaldisound.com

Logo: http://www.pamelawinningham.com

Producción: Carlos Andres Londono

Jennifer Hepton is a Conscious Life & Parenting Coach who works with women in their motherhood journey to move from a place of conditioning and overwhelm to mindfulness and consciousness. She is a pregnancy loss and grief awareness educator and supports women that have experienced infertility, pregnancy loss, pregnancy and parenting after loss and trauma.

Jenn uses her knowledge and training of trauma, neuroscience, neurobiology and mindfulness to support women in their healing so that they can reconnect to their inner healer, wisdom and voice. She is a certified conscious parenting coach with Dr. Shefali and supports families to move away from the

failed traditional paradigm of parenting to find ease, connection and joy.

Contact Jennifer Hepton http:// www.aconsciousmotherhood.com

Conscious parenting: https://www.instagram.com/aconsciousmotherhood/?hl=en

Pregnancy Loss Support: https://www.instagram.com/a_conscious_motherhood/?hl=en

Contact Kendra Rinaldi to be a guest: https://www.griefgratitudeandthegrayinbetween.com/

Music: http://www.rinaldisound.com

Logo: http://www.pamelawinningham.com

Production: Carlos Andres Londono