When Stacey Heale’s husband, Greg, was diagnosed with terminal cancer, life became a blur of caregiving, grief, and trying to hold a family together with two small children and no time to waste. Overnight, Stacey became a caregiver, medical advocate, emotional buffer, and the person holding all the impossible pieces.

In this tender and fiercely honest conversation, Stacey and Kate talk about what it means to love someone all the way to the end, and then somehow keep living. They explore the invisible labor of caregiving, the loneliness of anticipatory grief, and the weird sacredness of the small things that break you. There are no perfect endings here. Just the beauty and brutality of trying to live inside a love that doesn’t get to last.

Heads up: There’s some strong language in this episode—because sometimes life is just too much for tidy words.

In this conversation, Kate and Stacey discuss:

• Why we grieve the ordinary things like school plays and grocery store noodles
• What it means to love someone without believing in soulmates
• The quiet devastation of living in the “before and after”
• The strange glow of early grief and what happens when it fades

If you liked this episode, you’ll also like: 

• John Green: Chronic not Curable
• Clover Stroud: The Rituals of Grief
• Tembi Locke: Grief of the Almosts

 

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.