What does it mean to live on when so many of your loved ones have already gone?

How do you begin to navigate the survivor’s guilt left behind?

In Chapter 2 of Heather’s story, she helps us explore those questions.

She recounts her daughter Lexi’s cancer journey, hoping to save another child if she couldn’t save her own.

She shares how hospice taught her the quiet power of the will to live, and what it truly means to “be there” when someone you love dies.

Most of all, she teaches us how to say goodbye.

This is Last Words: Death Perception.

This is Heather Lawson.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this episode are those of the guest(s) and do not reflect the views of Last Words Podcast or its producers.

You met Taylor in the debut episode of Last Words Podcast.

A 24 year old Li-Fraumeni patient embracing the unconventional.

Now, meet her mother — Heather Lawson.

Host Nic Main returns to Indiana to hear Heather’s story.

A NICU nurse, Heather reflects on what it means to work with such fragile lives and how her own story shaped her into an advocate for the mothers and newborns who enter her world.

She shares what it was like to lose her father as a teenager and years later, help her own children navigate that same kind of loss.

She answers the questions:

What does it mean to explain death to a child?

Where do we place the love that remains

after someone is gone?

Teaching us in crisis: everything has to change.

This is Last Words: Death Perception.

This is Heather Lawson.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this episode are those of the guest(s) and do not reflect the views of Last Words Podcast or its producers.

This episode of Last Words is In Memoriam of Virginia Viviano who passed away on May 8th, of 2025.

Virginia was deeply loved by her family and known to them as living example of unwavering faith.

Diagnosed with terminal colon cancer and given three months to live, she chose to face her final chapter with grace, courage, and conviction.

In this episode, host Nic Main makes a 12-hour drive from Mississippi to the Texas–Mexico border where he meets Virginia and records what would become her final interview.

Despite the pain, Virginia’s faith never wavered. In fact, it only grew stronger, meeting terminal illness head-on, with no stone left unturned.

She shares her living testimony as a devout Catholic, reflecting on how her beliefs shaped her from a career in radio, to serving in the military, to her belief on the erosion of faith in modern society.

This is Last Words.

This is Virginia.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this episode are those of the guest(s) and do not reflect the views of Last Words Podcast or its producers.

Together, Amber and host Nic Main explore the uncomfortable reality of dying.

How rarely we talk about it, and how that silence leaves more than just psychological scars.

Amber speaks honestly about the limits of caregiving,

the quiet moment when you must say “I give,”

and what it means to grieve when goodbye never had a clear beginning or end.

She reflects on the difference between treating the patient and treating the parent.

And what it takes to make the choice to let go.

This is Last Words: Death Perception.

This is Amber Olsen.

This is a Death Perception episode of Last Words, where we explore death through the eyes of those who walk alongside it.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this episode are those of the guest(s) and do not reflect the views of Last Words Podcast or its producers.

In this episode our host Nic Main travels to Mississpi, to meet Amber Olsen.

Amber was a mother of 3 daughters living an ordinary life through the lens of what society expected from her. She sought to provide a living, buy the car, and create the home.

Then on May 19th, 2016 Amber’s youngest Willow was diagnosed with MSD.

MSD, or Multiple Sulfatase Deficiency, prevents the body from processing natural cellular waste. Over time, it stripped Willow of her ability to move, speak, and simply be a child.

Amber was faced with a choice.

Watch more children like her daughter Willow suffer,

Or search for a cure that would change the entire landscape for MSD patients for years to come.

Almost 10 years later, Amber has raised over 3.6 million dollars in her continued fight to combat MSD and find a cure.

She also founded the United MSD Foundation a nonprofit dedicated to accelerating research and finding a cure.

In this episode Nic and Amber reflect on Willow’s legacy.

The core concepts of being a caregiver.

The documentary “The Zebra and The Bear” based on Willow’s journey.

Questions submitted from listeners like you.

And what it means to transition out of losing someone to a terminal illness.

This is Last Words: Death Perception.

This is Amber Olsen.

This is a Death Perception episode of Last Words, where we explore death through the eyes of those who walk alongside it.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this episode are those of the guest(s) and do not reflect the views of Last Words Podcast or its producers.

Taylor shares how she went from caretaker to patient almost overnight.

Finding her faith in the depths of darkness.

She teaches us that behind death, life is waiting.

Taylor reflects on what it means to be different in a world that strives to be the same.

And she shares her final thoughts she will one day leave behind.

This is Last Words.

This is Taylor.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this episode are those of the guest(s) and do not reflect the views of Last Words Podcast or its producers.

In the debut episode of Last Words Podcast, host Nic Main travels back to his home state of Indiana.

Here he sits down with Taylor, a previvor. Taylor is a 24 year old Li-Fraumini patient. Li-Fraumini syndrome predisposes Taylor to the risk of developing multiple cancers over her lifetime.

The National Institute of Health has stated that the five core LFS-related cancers that LFS patients are predisposed to are adrenocortical carcinomas (ACC), breast cancer, central nervous system (CNS) tumors, osteosarcomas, and soft-tissue sarcomas.

According to St. Jude,

50% of Li-Fraumeni patients will develop cancer before they are 30.

100% of Li-Fraumeni patients will develop cancer before they are 60.

Nic first heard Taylor’s story over 2 years ago when they were both volunteering for the same non-profit organization. That is when he knew when he launched Last Words Podcast, he wanted to bring her story to life.

His question was: what was life like for Taylor before her diagnosis?

In Chapter 1 of Taylor’s story, she recounts the lives of her father Bradley, aunt Jennifer, and younger sister Lexi. How she had to navigate the loss of her father and aunt, before she would ever receive her own diagnosis.

How her mother fought an uphill battle to uncover the truth in where these cancers came from.

And how her younger sister Lexi’s diagnosis would uncover the link between them all.

This is Last Words.

This is Taylor.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this episode are those of the guest(s) and do not reflect the views of Last Words Podcast or its producers.

Welcome to Last Words Podcast.

New episodes every Tuesday at 5am CST.