Stolen Goodbyes

This is an interview with Nikki Williams, a woman who lost her amazing mum Valerie and dad Hefin to Covid 19 within 11 days of each other in early 2020. Nikki was then diagnosed with incurable, secondary breast cancer. 

With great resilience, Nikki recounts the lovely whirlwind romance her parents enjoyed, how they loved to dance, her Welsh dad’s love of singing, their love of life and family, and their generosity to the many children they fostered, including Sarah who they adopted, and the big role they played in the community helping others. 

Despite experiencing a ‘living hell’ in losing her parents who were the centre of her world, battling guilt and post-traumatic stress disorder, Nikki is choosing to live as her parents did, emulating love and helping people in need in the Covid-19 bereaved and cancer communities. Her message is: "Be kind and love. My parents didn't have two pennies to rub together but they had each other, and us, the family."

Created, produced, and hosted by Karen Rice, the Stolen Goodbyes podcast won gold in the fiercely competitive Best Lockdown category of the British Podcast Award 2021.

Stolen Goodbyes is described as: "outstanding ethical and trauma-informed journalism. Karen Rice manages to capture a historic event in real-time by listening with empathy. Future generations will listen to this podcast and know what it felt like to live through this pandemic." Dart Centre for Journalism and Trauma.

Please listen to, review, and share this podcast with your network, it really helps!

If you would like to make a donation (no matter how small) to the running costs of this passion project, please visit: https://karen-rice.com/podcast/ or http://bit.ly/3kMSKLg

You can follow Karen on Twitter @Ricekmc and Stolen Goodbyes on Instagram: https://bit.ly/3ITXSFC Facebook: https://bit.ly/3kGGwnG and Youtube: http://bit.ly/3Yq0jW5

🎧 Listen + Support Stolen Goodbyes

💛 Donate: supporter.acast.com/stolen-goodbyes

🌐 Podcast: shows.acast.com/stolen-goodbyes

📩 Contact: [email protected]

🤝 Partnerships: email to discuss

📘 Facebook: bit.ly/3kGGwnG

📺 YouTube: bit.ly/3Yq0jW5

📸 Instagram: bit.ly/3ITXSFC

🖥️ Info: karen-rice.com/podcast

🕊️ In a world eager to move on, Stolen Goodbyes chooses to remember.

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/stolen-goodbyes.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this inspirational interview, Stella Hill describes how she has gone from the depths of despair and shock after losing her beloved mother Sharon to Covid 19 on Christmas Day in 2020 to a more positive place where she is now focused on continuing things her mother was interested in such as tracing her ancestry. 

Stella has gone from being consumed by errors made, examining doctor’s notes, and questioning how her mum got Covid, to celebrating her mother’s legacy, her quirky ‘Sharonisms’, wicked sense of humor, and her fun, loving, steadfast, and non-judgemental presence in her life. 

As well as cherishing the last time of everything including photos and voice messages she has from her mother, Stella shares how she is comforted when visited in dreams by her mum. 

Created, produced, and hosted by Karen Rice, the Stolen Goodbyes podcast won gold in the fiercely competitive Best Lockdown category of the British Podcast Award 2021.

Stolen Goodbyes is described as: "outstanding ethical and trauma-informed journalism. Karen Rice manages to capture a historic event in real-time by listening with empathy. Future generations will listen to this podcast and know what it felt like to live through this pandemic." Dart Centre for Journalism and Trauma.

Please listen to, review, and share this podcast with your network, it really helps!

If you would like to make a donation (no matter how small) to the running costs of this passion project, please visit: https://karen-rice.com/podcast/ or http://bit.ly/3kMSKLg

You can follow Karen on Twitter @Ricekmc and Stolen Goodbyes on Instagram: https://bit.ly/3ITXSFC Facebook: https://bit.ly/3kGGwnG and Youtube: http://bit.ly/3Yq0jW5

🎧 Listen + Support Stolen Goodbyes

💛 Donate: supporter.acast.com/stolen-goodbyes

🌐 Podcast: shows.acast.com/stolen-goodbyes

📩 Contact: [email protected]

🤝 Partnerships: email to discuss

📘 Facebook: bit.ly/3kGGwnG

📺 YouTube: bit.ly/3Yq0jW5

📸 Instagram: bit.ly/3ITXSFC

🖥️ Info: karen-rice.com/podcast

🕊️ In a world eager to move on, Stolen Goodbyes chooses to remember.

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/stolen-goodbyes.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this special and wide-ranging interview with four grief/trauma experts, we explore how the Covid 19 bereaved community is only beginning to deal with their loss now, three years after the event. This is because many bereaved people felt secure in a lockdown bubble where they didn't have to deal with reality, a reality that saw the catastrophic loss of a loved one without a goodbye, funeral, memorial, or support. Many bereaved people are experiencing what I've called 'distorted grief' because they sometimes feel that the loss is surreal, happened to someone else, or even that it never took place.

We discuss how while the world has moved on, Covid bereaved people are only now facing a grief they compartmentalised, a loss the mind didn't integrate, and how they are still struggling to find a place for a 'dangling remorse' that doesn't seem to make sense.

The experts impart their views on the importance of sharing our experiences, not feeling that sharing is a burden, creating meaning from loss, having our loss witnessed as well as being an observer of our own grief. We also discuss how traumatic grief impacts body and mind, the importance of living holistically, breathing work, and being in nature, and the importance of honoring the legacy of a loved one. In a fast-moving world, these experts highlight the importance of taking time to slow down and to feel and mark a momentous loss in our lives.

The expert speakers are:

Dr Chloe Paidoussis-Mitchell, founder of The Grief Clinic

@drchloe_psychologist

Liz Gleeson, host of the Shapes of Grief podcast 

@Shapesofgrief

Helen Smith, founder of the Lockdowngrief Instagram page

@lockdowngrief 

Edy Nathan, author of It’s Grief -The Dance of Self-Discovery Through Trauma and Loss

@edynathan1

Created, produced, and hosted by Karen Rice, the Stolen Goodbyes podcast won gold in the fiercely competitive Best Lockdown category of the British Podcast Award 2021.

Stolen Goodbyes is described as: "outstanding ethical and trauma-informed journalism. Karen Rice manages to capture a historic event in real-time by listening with empathy. Future generations will listen to this podcast and know what it felt like to live through this pandemic." Dart Centre for Journalism and Trauma.

Please listen to, review, and share this podcast with your network, it really helps!

If you would like to make a donation (no matter how small) to the running costs of this passion project, please visit: https://karen-rice.com/podcast/ or http://bit.ly/3kMSKLg

You can follow Karen on Twitter @Ricekmc and Stolen Goodbyes on Instagram: https://bit.ly/3ITXSFC Facebook: https://bit.ly/3kGGwnG and Youtube: http://bit.ly/3Yq0jW5

🎧 Listen + Support Stolen Goodbyes

💛 Donate: supporter.acast.com/stolen-goodbyes

🌐 Podcast: shows.acast.com/stolen-goodbyes

📩 Contact: [email protected]

🤝 Partnerships: email to discuss

📘 Facebook: bit.ly/3kGGwnG

📺 YouTube: bit.ly/3Yq0jW5

📸 Instagram: bit.ly/3ITXSFC

🖥️ Info: karen-rice.com/podcast

🕊️ In a world eager to move on, Stolen Goodbyes chooses to remember.

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/stolen-goodbyes.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode is dedicated to the memory of the loveliest of men - my father Tom Rice. With the help of my cousin Samantha Hamshere, we take listeners on a journey through the extraordinary life of a man with humble beginnings in County Kerry (Ireland) who went on to realise his dreams in London where he transmitted love and laughter, leaving behind an enormous legacy.

This latest season of the Stolen Goodbyes podcast unpacks a troubling and as yet unexplored aspect of grief to Covid 19.  I’ve called the season ‘Distorted Grief’ as we explore the manifestations of how losing someone to Covid 19 seems dreamlike and surreal, almost like that special someone could walk through the door at any moment.  The Covid 19 bereaved are experiencing this derealisation of reality because they were denied the usual rituals that go with a death such as saying goodbye, seeing and dressing the body of a loved one, and having a funeral.  

My guests also join me in exploring the importance of sounds, voice recordings, and music associated with loved ones, the joy of making unexpected connections, and a loved one's legacy, as well as sharing coping mechanisms, gratitude, and resilience in the face of adversity.

Created, produced, and hosted by Karen Rice, the Stolen Goodbyes podcast won gold in the fiercely competitive Best Lockdown category of the British Podcast Award 2021.

Stolen Goodbyes is described as: "outstanding ethical and trauma-informed journalism. Karen Rice manages to capture a historic event in real-time by listening with empathy. Future generations will listen to this podcast and know what it felt like to live through this pandemic." Dart Centre for Journalism and Trauma.

Please listen to, review, and share this podcast with your network, it really helps!

If you would like to make a donation (no matter how small) to the running costs of this passion project, please visit: https://karen-rice.com/podcast/ or http://bit.ly/3kMSKLg

You can follow Karen on Twitter @Ricekmc and Stolen Goodbyes on Instagram: https://bit.ly/3ITXSFC Facebook: https://bit.ly/3kGGwnG and Youtube: http://bit.ly/3Yq0jW5

🎧 Listen + Support Stolen Goodbyes

💛 Donate: supporter.acast.com/stolen-goodbyes

🌐 Podcast: shows.acast.com/stolen-goodbyes

📩 Contact: [email protected]

🤝 Partnerships: email to discuss

📘 Facebook: bit.ly/3kGGwnG

📺 YouTube: bit.ly/3Yq0jW5

📸 Instagram: bit.ly/3ITXSFC

🖥️ Info: karen-rice.com/podcast

🕊️ In a world eager to move on, Stolen Goodbyes chooses to remember.

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/stolen-goodbyes.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this special episode of the Stolen Goodbyes podcast, people who lost their loved ones to Covid 19 in the first wave of the pandemic recount how they have been left traumatised by the exceptional circumstances of their loss. They feel they were not only robbed of a loved one but of everything that goes with a death.

Loss to Covid 19 has been described as a grief like no other. That grief, affecting almost six million families across the world, is yet to be unpacked and understood.

These amazing people bare their souls in order that the public can truly understand the emotional, mental and physical fall out from Covid 19.

They are Linsey Simmonds who lost her father Kevin Morans on May 3, Eileen McNamee lost her mother Anna Shewan on May 21, Jane Smith who lost husband Gof on April 4, Sally Gardiner who lost husband of four months Trevor on April 27, Carole Caudwell who lost her mother Irene Cain on April 15, and Debbie Lewis who lost her father Barry on April 5.

🎧 Listen + Support Stolen Goodbyes

💛 Donate: supporter.acast.com/stolen-goodbyes

🌐 Podcast: shows.acast.com/stolen-goodbyes

📩 Contact: [email protected]

🤝 Partnerships: email to discuss

📘 Facebook: bit.ly/3kGGwnG

📺 YouTube: bit.ly/3Yq0jW5

📸 Instagram: bit.ly/3ITXSFC

🖥️ Info: karen-rice.com/podcast

🕊️ In a world eager to move on, Stolen Goodbyes chooses to remember.

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/stolen-goodbyes.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this special episode of the Stolen Goodbyes podcast, people who lost their loved ones to Covid 19 in the first wave of the pandemic give their view on the Partygate revelations surrounding Boris Johnson and his government and Johnson's so-called 'Freedom Day' of 24 February 2020.

Johnson is currently refusing to say whether he will resign if he is fined by the police for breaking Covid 19 lockdown laws with a string of parties at Downing Street. Since the party revelations emerged, Johnson's story has changed from claiming all guidance at No10 was followed to him admitting he attended parties but thought they were work events and were therefore not against the rules.

The Covid 19 bereaved intimately recount what they have been through in the past two years: The Stolen Goodbyes, not having sight of their loved ones once they passed, not being able to dress them or have a lock of their hair, no wake, funeral, or memorial, not being unable to hug a loved one due to restrictions, a total lack of support in isolated grief. While they lived and continue to live this nightmare, Downing Street staff enjoyed party time, again and again.

Guests on this episode are: Linsey Simmonds who lost her father Kevin Morans on May 3, Eileen McNamee lost her mother Anna Shewan on May 21, Jane Smith who lost husband Gof on April 4, Sally Gardiner who lost husband of four months Trevor on April 27, Carole Caudwell who lost her mother Irene Cain on April 15, and Debbie Lewis who lost her father Barry on April 5.

🎧 Listen + Support Stolen Goodbyes

💛 Donate: supporter.acast.com/stolen-goodbyes

🌐 Podcast: shows.acast.com/stolen-goodbyes

📩 Contact: [email protected]

🤝 Partnerships: email to discuss

📘 Facebook: bit.ly/3kGGwnG

📺 YouTube: bit.ly/3Yq0jW5

📸 Instagram: bit.ly/3ITXSFC

🖥️ Info: karen-rice.com/podcast

🕊️ In a world eager to move on, Stolen Goodbyes chooses to remember.

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/stolen-goodbyes.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this special episode, people who lost their loved ones to Covid 19 in the first wave of the pandemic recount how Boris Johnson's delayed lockdown in early 2020, has impacted their lives forever.

The UK's first confirmed cases were on 31 January 2020 but Johnson waited almost another two months before performing a screeching u-turn to put the country into full lockdown on March 23. This was all too late for the following people:

Linsey Simmonds who lost her father Kevin Morans on May 3, Eileen McNamee lost her mother Anna Shewan on May 21, Jane Smith who lost husband Gof on April 4, Sally Gardiner who lost husband of four months Trevor on April 27, Carole Caudwell who lost her mother Irene Cain on April 15, and Debbie Lewis who lost her father Barry on April 5.

🎧 Listen + Support Stolen Goodbyes

💛 Donate: supporter.acast.com/stolen-goodbyes

🌐 Podcast: shows.acast.com/stolen-goodbyes

📩 Contact: [email protected]

🤝 Partnerships: email to discuss

📘 Facebook: bit.ly/3kGGwnG

📺 YouTube: bit.ly/3Yq0jW5

📸 Instagram: bit.ly/3ITXSFC

🖥️ Info: karen-rice.com/podcast

🕊️ In a world eager to move on, Stolen Goodbyes chooses to remember.

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/stolen-goodbyes.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of the Stolen Goodbyes podcast, Karen talks to Emma Charlesworth in Kent in the UK, and Pamela Addison in New Jersey in the USA, who both lost their husbands to Covid 19 in April 2020. Both of their husbands were in their mid 40s when they died. 

Despite the distance between them, the women have bonded through a shared sense of loss, support and grief including how both their husbands experienced their first Covid 19 symptoms on the same day, March 22.

In this special interview, the two friends intimately recount the highs and lows of grief to Covid 19, how they are getting through daily life, how their children are coping and their hopes for the future. 

🎧 Listen + Support Stolen Goodbyes

💛 Donate: supporter.acast.com/stolen-goodbyes

🌐 Podcast: shows.acast.com/stolen-goodbyes

📩 Contact: [email protected]

🤝 Partnerships: email to discuss

📘 Facebook: bit.ly/3kGGwnG

📺 YouTube: bit.ly/3Yq0jW5

📸 Instagram: bit.ly/3ITXSFC

🖥️ Info: karen-rice.com/podcast

🕊️ In a world eager to move on, Stolen Goodbyes chooses to remember.

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/stolen-goodbyes.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of the Stolen Goodbyes podcast, Karen is joined by Jerri Vance from West Virginia, USA, who lost her husband James to Covid 19 on New Year’s Day 2021.

Jerri tells how James spent his life serving others, first in the Marine Corps, and then as a police officer, and was a proud and protective father who always went the extra mile to make his family's lives better. 

Tragically, Jerri relates how a week after developing a cough, a fit and healthy James had been hospitalised with doctors telling her he had Covid Pneumonia which made his lungs look like blown glass. 

Jerri heartbreakingly shares how she always believed James was coming home and that doctors believed they could save his life, saying James was: “supposed to be our success story.”

After his death, Jerri discovered phone messages in which James told friends how scared he was, but he never revealed his fear to his family, their protector to the last. 

🎧 Listen + Support Stolen Goodbyes

💛 Donate: supporter.acast.com/stolen-goodbyes

🌐 Podcast: shows.acast.com/stolen-goodbyes

📩 Contact: [email protected]

🤝 Partnerships: email to discuss

📘 Facebook: bit.ly/3kGGwnG

📺 YouTube: bit.ly/3Yq0jW5

📸 Instagram: bit.ly/3ITXSFC

🖥️ Info: karen-rice.com/podcast

🕊️ In a world eager to move on, Stolen Goodbyes chooses to remember.

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/stolen-goodbyes.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

En este episodio del podcast Despedidas Robadas, Karen está acompañada por el guatemalteco Mauro Márquez, quien perdió a su madre Irma, de 72 años, a causa del Covid 19, en Oklahoma, Estados Unidos, el 10 de enero de 2021.

En un episodio desgarrador, Mauro cuenta cómo compartían una relación muy estrecha, ya que su madre era sorda y dependía de él para entender el mundo, mientras que ella le ayudaba con su miopía.

Trágicamente, Mauro explica cómo esta madre tan generosa no pudo comunicarse con los médicos cuando enfermó de Covid 19, ni pudo leer los labios porque todo el personal médico llevaba mascarillas.

Mauro también cree que el Covid 19 ha impedido a su madre cumplir sus últimos deseos de ser enterrada con su difunto marido en Guatemala.

🎧 Listen + Support Stolen Goodbyes

💛 Donate: supporter.acast.com/stolen-goodbyes

🌐 Podcast: shows.acast.com/stolen-goodbyes

📩 Contact: [email protected]

🤝 Partnerships: email to discuss

📘 Facebook: bit.ly/3kGGwnG

📺 YouTube: bit.ly/3Yq0jW5

📸 Instagram: bit.ly/3ITXSFC

🖥️ Info: karen-rice.com/podcast

🕊️ In a world eager to move on, Stolen Goodbyes chooses to remember.

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/stolen-goodbyes.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.