Reckoning the Podcast

Celeste shares her story of losing her dad on New Years Day at the tender age of five years old. Adding even more depth and complexity to her story, she learns she has inherited the same rare blood disorder that killed him, and thus faces her own mortality as she navigates life. These two enormous hurdles in life feel daunting to me, but she approaches the conversation with such ease, and calm, and gentleness.

Janette shares her story of taking care of her elderly parents while simultaneously raising two kids. She really dives into the “work” and details of the dying process: sorting through old belongings, advocating for the medical decisions spelled out in a POLST or advanced directive, navigating the financial and legal elements. She shares openly and honestly about the struggles and exhaustion, while also naming some hard-won beautiful insights about how our families can walk through the process together, about learning what it means to give space to someone as they take their last breaths, and about how anyone we bump into in the world can be suffering with grief.

Peggy shares the story of being a caretaker for her dad for five full years before he passes away, and the complex feelings of grief and gratitude and resentment and love that emerge from that process. She shares some beautiful stories of intimate moments, and her deeply thoughtful insights into her relationship with Hank, and her own sense of purpose and meaning.

This conversation with Jeff is part of a series of conversations with peers from my end of life class in the PSU social work program. We range from thoughts on what death can teach us, how covid is impacting our lives and our communities, and what draws him to his work as a hospice social worker, all with curiosity and enthusiasm.

Kristin talks about navigating multiple simultaneous cancer diagnoses, her process of finding and using her voice as a patient self advocate, and the resulting changes, shifts, and transformations across the arenas of her life.

Gemma describes her relationship with her Grandmother Maria, who was a long standing presence in her family and her young life. Gemma speaks with depth and great emotion about the dynamics within her family, and about the feelings she has watching her mother go through that loss.

One of seven interviews with classmates in my End of Life class.

Rosie shares about losing her daughter Norah, who died in utero as a twin. It's a touching conversation about the vital need for compassion in our daily interactions with others, the spiritual journey that is attendant to becoming a mother, what is means to hold life and death in the exact same breath.

This episode, I attempt for the first time to combine seven unique stories into one! I am in a class on the subject of end of life, and for a class project asked my peers if anyone wanted to participate in the podcast. Here is the result. It's a beautiful collection of insights and experiences. I will post each separate story as an individual episode soon. Enjoy listening to Gemma, Jeff, Rosie, Peggy, Janette, and Celeste share their perspectives.

This episode, I talk with Ben about not just losing his dad to a sudden heart attack, but also about how we say goodbyes, how traditions support us in grief, and the wider context of how of culture influences the way we process and understand loss. We sit in Arbor Lodge park, accompanied by birds, wind, passing planes, and the occasional park visitor.

This conversation with deep thinker and deep soul Alejandra goes into some big questions about grief in general though her specific experience of losing her mother. We wade into conversations about how it feels in our bodies, about the gifts and transformation that can come of loss, and she reads an incredible poem by Kahlil Gibran to highlight the blurry line between love and grief.