Life Shift | True Stories of Healing, Grief & Loss

Content note: this episode includes discussion of the loss of an infant child. Maybe you know what it is to keep a small ritual no one else knows about. Something you do quietly at night, just to be sure. Tania Chomyk was in her thirties, a mom to a five year old daughter and a six month old son, living what everyone called the million dollar family. On the morning of November 11th, 1998, she woke up, turned to her husband, and said, what an angel, he slept through the night. Her son Danylo had already passed. Tania walks us through the fog of that day, the months she spent retreating from the world, and the little girl whose gentle words about her brother gave her a reason to keep going. For twelve years she checked on her next baby every night with a finger under his nose, and she told no one. We talk about grief that shows up when it wants to, clean pain and dirty pain, a marriage that couldn't hold two different ways of grieving, and the research paper she wrote in 2002 that she pulled back out twenty years later. Tania shares what carrying grief has looked like for her, and she leaves room for yours. What You'll Hear The morning of November 11th, 1998, and the fog that came after A five year old daughter who became her reason to keep going Signs, a Beanie Baby angel, and feeling her son's presence Retreating, returning to work, and the Easter question that broke her open Clean pain, dirty pain, and a marriage that grieved in two directions Writing a book twenty-eight years later to support the Child Life Program at the Montreal Children's Hospital Guest Bio: Tania Chomyk is an author, life transition expert, award-winning inspirational speaker and educator with more than 30 years of experience in higher education, career development, leadership and personal growth. The unexpected loss of her infant son, Danylo, became the catalyst for her life’s work helping others navigate grief, life transitions and new beginnings with courage, clarity, and hope. She is the author of Bringing Light to Loss: Redefining Grief to Reclaim Hope and Meaning. Website: https://taniachomyk.com/ Book: Bringing Light to Loss: Redefining Grief to Reclaim Hope and Meaning Listen and follow: www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/follow Subscribe to the newsletter: https://thelifeshiftpodcast.beehiiv.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Have you ever had an ordinary afternoon that turned out to be one of the most important of your life? Pam was 38, living a life she calls a blessing, with a loving husband, great friends, and a house that was always ready for the next party. Then one afternoon around her pool, she got to know her younger brother as an adult for the very first time. Less than three weeks later, he was gone. That was the first of many losses. Her brother, her mom, her dad, and then Jim, the husband who walked beside her through all of it since she was 26. Through every one of them, her faith stayed with her, and so did her pen. She started writing after her brother died, and she picked it back up after Jim passed, hoping something good could come from it all. This is a gentle and honest conversation about grief that keeps changing shape, the things we get to say and the things we never do, and what it looks like to find your footing when part of you went with the person you loved. It is also Pam's very first video podcast, and she told me she was nervous. I am so glad she came. What You'll Hear An afternoon by the pool with a brother she barely knew A decision about organ donation that honored who he was Grieving a mother before she was gone, and finding each other again Asking the Lord for more time, and getting almost two more years with Jim Why the last chapter does not get to be the whole book Stepping outside her comfort zone, and the message from a recent widow that made it worth it Guest Bio Pamela Joy Dlugos is an award-winning author, educator, and spiritual encourager whose writing brings God's Word to life through messages of comfort, hope, and inspiration. A former teacher and founder of ReJOYce Publications, she is the author of four faith-filled books for readers of all ages. Her grief journey spans more than three decades: the sudden loss of her only sibling, both parents, and most recently, her beloved husband of 45 years. Those LIFE SHIFTS inspired books on subjects she never planned to write about, guided by the Holy Spirit every step of the way. Today, Pamela's calling is to help grieving hearts find hope, healing, and joy while discovering what God may be leading them toward in life's unexpected next chapter. Website: authorpamelajoy.com YouTube: @authorpamelajoy 0:00 Pam's story in brief 3:34 Who Pam is today: author, encourager, publisher 6:02 Life before the first loss 10:09 An afternoon by the pool with her brother 11:47 Her brother's death and the organ donation decision 15:22 Writing begins with Messages from Heaven 16:27 Questioning faith after loss 18:36 Grieving her mother before she was gone 28:39 Jim's unexplained fatigue 30:15 The hospital, the ventilator and asking for more time 33:49 Jim's passing and losing part of herself 34:37 Writing again: the memoir and Seeds of Joy 44:41 What she hopes for in the next year 46:20 The message from a recent widow 48:46 What she would tell her younger self 49:35 Where to find Pam's books and YouTube Listen and follow: https://www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/follow/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=ep298 Subscribe to the newsletter: https://thelifeshiftpodcast.beehiiv.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Content note: this episode includes a conversation about death with dignity and a family history of suicide. Is there a room in your life that you still go back to? Jennifer Griffith was 13 when her mom told her she had a brother, and when her dad told her he did not want to be there anymore. Neither conversation was ever talked about again. So she learned to carry it quietly and to be the grown-up in the house. That kind of silence follows a person. It followed her through eighteen years in technology sales and a lot of years dabbling at the book she always wanted to write. Then her father, near the end of his life, told her that life just went so fast. Jennifer was 42. She let go of her career, gave herself ten years, and started writing her mother's story and her own, threaded together. It took five years to write and two more to sell. This is a warm and honest conversation about shame, family stories, and what happens when you finally let what is inside of you out. We talk about the mother she wanted to honor, the father she came to understand, and the 13 year old she still walks out of that room. If you have been waiting for permission, I hope you hear a little of it here. What You'll Hear A mother's secret and a father's announcement in the same living room at 13 Taking on the grown-up role when the adults in the room had left A father's last words, and why they landed when they did Why shame cannot live in the light Five years to write a book, two more to sell it, and a podcast built in between Walking her 13 year old self out onto a sunny deck Guest Bio: Jennifer Griffith spent eighteen years in technology sales before following a deathbed conversation with her father into the work she was always meant to do. She spent a decade writing, rewriting, navigating rejection, and building a platform from scratch before landing her debut book, Both Sides of Then with Regalo Press. In doing so, she discovered that the skill that made her exceptional at helping her team develop their sales careers was exactly the skill driving her work as an author and speaker: the ability to find the real story underneath the one someone is presenting. She brings that discovery to every stage she steps onto. Website: www.byjennifergriffith.com Book: Both Sides of Then Instagram: @byjennifergriffith LinkedIn: byjennifergriffith Podcast: About Your Mother Listen and follow: www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/follow Subscribe to the newsletter: https://thelifeshiftpodcast.beehiiv.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Have you ever carried something you were handed, a belief, a role, a way of seeing yourself, and wondered how much of it was ever really yours? Margaret was born in an old hotel in Switzerland, into a community that believed giving yourself fully could change the world. She grew up traveling with it, acting in plays, and living in community, and she slowly learned to quiet her own dreams. She wanted to be a doctor and could not say so out loud. Years later, riding a bike down a hill in Oxford, she knew her questions would not be answered until she left. It took three more years, a medical crisis, and a father who finally understood. At 35, she loaded up a little blue Plymouth and drove to Boston with no template. This is a gentle and honest conversation about silence, belonging, and what love looks like once you see a person as they really are. Margaret speaks about what she left with respect and honesty, and she stays curious about what it gave her. If you have ever had to start over without a map, I hope you feel a little less alone here. What You'll Hear Growing up in a community that believed it could change the world The doctor she wanted to be, and the courage she did not yet have A bike ride in Oxford and the moment leaving became a real option Three more years of staying, and the father who finally understood Driving to Boston at 35 with no template and no one to tell her who she was What she learned about love from a husband very different from her Guest Bio Margaret Eastman Smith is the author of the new book A Spectacular Inheritance: What I Kept and What I Left Behind. She currently serves as the Director of the Program on Trauma Healing and Community Resilience for the Institute of World Affairs, a Washington, DC-based NGO. She served on the faculty of American University's Program on International Peace and Conflict Resolution for nearly two decades. Her academic work focuses on the role of history and memory in divided societies, as well as grassroots approaches to peacebuilding. She pursued counseling studies to gain a greater understanding of these matters. Website: www.margareteastmansmith.com Listen and follow: https://www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/follow/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=ep296 Subscribe to the newsletter: https://thelifeshiftpodcast.beehiiv.com/ You Might Also Like: Identity: More Than the Thing You're Known For Reclamation: Coming Back To The Girl Who Got Shut Down starting over at 35, leaving a movement, Moral Re-Armament, growing up in a movement, finding your own voice, walking away from the only life you know, what to keep and what to leave, midlife reinvention, memoir, family inheritance Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Have you ever wondered what you would say if someone you love told you they were ready to go? Most of us put that conversation off, and it waits for us anyway. Oliver spent about twenty years far from Switzerland, in Japan, the UK and Australia. He came home for one year, and stayed when his father's health began to decline. He and his mother grew closer than they had ever been. Then one afternoon, over a cup of tea, she told him it was time. He had known for years, and in that moment it felt real for the first time. He said yes, and he walked beside her through a chosen, conscious ending. This is a warm and honest conversation about love, letting go, and a mother and son finally getting to know each other. There are tears, gratitude, and a surprising amount of lightness. If death is something you are afraid to talk about, I hope this feels like a gentle place to begin. What You'll Hear Why Oliver left Switzerland and what finally brought him home Twenty years of keeping his mother at arm's length, and the hug that ended it The afternoon over tea when she said it was time What it means to complete a life rather than end it The small layers of letting go, from skiing to her favorite soup Why the conversations before the end can free everyone in the room Guest Bio Oliver Christen grew up in a small Swiss town. After graduating from business school and completing his service as an officer, he left Switzerland to expand his horizons and see the world. Over the next two decades, Oliver travelled extensively, experienced different cultures, built businesses across four continents, and immersed himself in meditative practice. For several years, he performed with a spiritual theatre company at renowned festivals across Asia and Europe. Eventually, he returned to Switzerland as a dual Swiss/Australian citizen to be closer to his parents, bringing with him his international family. With no prior experience in assisted dying, he relied on intuition, presence, and a handful of careful conversations and research to support and witness his mother's intentional end of life. Friends deeply moved by his mother's final journey encouraged Oliver to write As She Chose. Today, Oliver lives near Zürich. As She Chose is his first book, available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Goodreads. Website: www.choosingtogo.com Social: @oliverchristen Listen and follow: https://www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/follow/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=ep295 Subscribe to the newsletter: https://thelifeshiftpodcast.beehiiv.com/ You Might Also Like: Grief: Making Something Beautiful From What Broke The Complexity of Grief After Losing a Brother in Childhood supporting a dying parent, end of life conversations, letting go, grief and acceptance, mother and son, conscious dying, living will, peaceful death, fear of death, family caregiving Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Maybe you have ticked every box and still wondered why the feeling never showed up. The degree, the job, the right age, the right house. You reach the milestone and happiness quietly slips over to the next one. Charu grew up believing a good life was a checklist. On the first morning of her honeymoon, she woke up unable to feel her hands, and within hours she was paralyzed. Lying in that hospital bed, all she could think was whether she would survive. That morning was the first crack in a life built to be approved of. Over the years that followed, it led to a divorce, a complete restart, and the slow work of learning to hear her own voice. This conversation holds a lot of tenderness. A father whose life ended just before retirement. The grief of years given away to pleasing people. The first time she said no to a friend after practicing in front of the mirror. If you have ever lived a life for someone else's approval, I hope you feel a little less alone here. What You'll Hear Why achieving everything on paper still left something missing The honeymoon morning when her body stopped listening Waking up in the hospital with only one question left A divorce, a restart, and the fear of not knowing anyone Saying no for the first time, after practicing in the mirror Writing a book as a way back to herself Guest Bio Charu Moorjani is an Australian Author, a mindset coach and a wellbeing storyteller known for her honest memoir-style writing and a grounding approach to personal growth. Her debut book, The Happiness Pathway, blends her lived life experiences with practical tools to help readers rebuild their self-worth by creating boundaries without guilt and developing simple daily habits to cultivate lasting happiness. Every chapter in her book includes stories and reflections from her life and little exercises that readers can use to make gentle shifts in their own lives. With a warm and relatable voice, Charu writes about healing after emotional pain, choosing resilience during times of change and the power of choosing yourself first. Through workshops and community conversations she creates safe space for reflection, connecting to yourself and making a lasting change in your life through simple tools, reminding people that happiness isn't something you find once, it's something you create daily. Website: www.thehappinesspathway.com Instagram: @thehappinesspathway Listen and follow: https://www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/follow/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=ep294 Subscribe to the newsletter: https://thelifeshiftpodcast.beehiiv.com/ You Might Also Like: Illness: When the Hard Thing Sets You Free Self-Worth: The Life She Fought For living by a checklist, people pleasing, Guillain Barré syndrome, starting over after divorce, learning to say no, healing journey, finding yourself, loving your own company, setting boundaries without guilt, redefining happiness Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Content note: this episode includes a detailed account of discovering a loved one's suicide. Todd Maguire spent twenty-seven years with the Queensland Police Service, most of it as a detective, including two years working undercover under a new identity: Donny Wilson. But the badge and the alias were only part of the story. On New Year's Day 2000, Todd's girlfriend Karen died by suicide in their home. He and her four-year-old son found her. Todd was twenty-five. Twelve months later, almost to the day, Todd became Donny. He grew his hair out, got tattoos, bought drugs from dealers, and walked toward danger most people would run from, chasing a recklessness that let him feel like nothing was worth protecting, including himself. He escaped death more times than he can count and once had a hundred-thousand-dollar bounty on his head. Looking back, he calls it a bit of a death wish. It took years of drinking, undiagnosed PTSD, and a wife telling him it felt like walking on eggshells before Todd started to find his way back. Therapy that didn't work the first time around. Reading about other undercover officers who'd lived through something similar. And eventually, writing it all down in a memoir, Donny: Undercover Cop with a Deathwish, that he wrote for himself and ended up helping strangers he'll never meet. What You'll Hear: Finding Karen and the moment that changed everything Deciding, together, not to continue a pregnancy weeks before her death Protecting her four-year-old son in the middle of the worst morning of Todd's life Grieving through blame, and the years it took to let it go Becoming Donny Wilson, twelve months to the day after Karen's death Repeatedly escaping death undercover, and the hundred-thousand-dollar bounty Marrying again, becoming a father, and still not being able to leave Donny behind Living with undiagnosed PTSD and what his wife noticed before he did Finding validation through other people's stories, a decade and a half later Why he wrote the book for himself, and what happened when strangers read it What he'd want to tell the Todd who was waiting on that porch in 2000 Guest Bio: Todd Maguire spent twenty-seven years with the Queensland Police Service, largely as a detective, including two years working undercover as "Donny Wilson." He is the author of the memoir Donny: Undercover Cop with a Deathwish, which tells the story of the grief, the undercover years, and the long recovery that followed the loss of his partner, Karen, in 2000. Website: www.toddmaguire.com.au Facebook: Todd Maguire Instagram: @todd_author_donny Listen and follow: www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/follow Subscribe to the newsletter: https://thelifeshiftpodcast.beehiiv.com/ You Might Also Like: First Responder Mental Health: What a Helicopter Crash Opened Up Part of Me Died That Day: Learning to Live After the Worst Day of Your Life undercover policing, PTSD, suicide loss, grief, memoir, Queensland Police, Donny Wilson, complex trauma, recovery Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Content note: this episode includes discussion of suicidal thoughts and a crisis hotline call. Travis White was twenty-three, newly engaged, and by his own description living the dream when his body started sending signals nobody had taught him to read. One ordinary night, studying for a web development class, he felt off. Hours later, he woke up surrounded by paramedics and police, unable to remember any of it, and the first question they asked him was what drugs he'd taken. He hadn't taken any. He'd had a seizure, and over the next six weeks he had forty or fifty more. What came after was almost harder than the seizures themselves. Medication that made him hallucinate. Neurologists who ran out of answers and handed him off. Jobs he walked out of mid-shift and never returned to because he was too ashamed to explain what had happened. Dissociative episodes that once had him driving an hour and a half home without remembering the trip. For fifteen years, Travis mostly kept all of it hidden, even as the seizures came and went, even as he built a career, got married, and became a father. Then in late 2024, months after his third child was born, the seizures returned in a brutal cluster. This time doctors gave the condition a name: psychogenic non-epileptic seizures, stress firing through the body in a pattern that looks like epilepsy but isn't. The diagnosis didn't come with a clear treatment plan, and Travis spiraled into a depression severe enough that he became suicidal. A call to the 988 hotline and a brother-in-law who reached out and meant it were the turning point. From there, Travis went all in on therapy, functional medicine, and a handful of simple tools that finally let him stop just managing his life and start rebuilding it. Today Travis hosts Overcome, a podcast built around the same honesty he fought to find for himself. What You'll Hear: The night in April 2009 that started it all, and waking up surrounded by paramedics Getting asked what drugs he'd taken when he'd never touched them Forty to fifty seizures in six weeks and a week hooked up to 24-hour monitoring Medication that caused hallucinations, and tapering himself off against medical advice Losing jobs by walking out and never going back, too embarrassed to explain What dissociation actually felt like, including driving home without remembering it Rebuilding a career, buying a house, and becoming a father while still hiding the struggle The 2024 seizure cluster and the diagnosis of PNES Becoming suicidal, calling the 988 hotline, and the phone call from his brother-in-law Therapy, functional medicine, diet changes, and the tools that actually helped Why starting Overcome became part of his own healing Guest Bio: Travis White is a speaker and the host of Overcome with Travis White, a mental-health podcast featuring honest conversations about trauma, grief, addiction, identity, and resilience. After seizures disrupted his independence and sense of self, Travis spent years trying to reclaim his old life before learning to grieve who he had been and build a meaningful new one. Through Overcome, he has hosted more than 80 conversations designed to help people feel less alone and recognize that difficult seasons do not have to define the rest of their lives. Website: https://overcomepod.com Listen and follow: www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/follow Subscribe to the newsletter: https://thelifeshiftpodcast.beehiiv.com/ You Might Also Like: Lemon-Sized Brain Tumor: The Life That Grew After Surgery The Cost of Quiet: Learning to Speak Up After Years of Silence seizures, PNES, psychogenic non-epileptic seizures, mental health stigma, dissociation, depression, 988 hotline, therapy, fatherhood, project manager, Overcome podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Content note: this episode includes discussion of sexual assault and an abusive relationship. Sometimes the yes that changes everything looks, at the time, like an escape. Angela Harger Thompson has been a storyteller since she was four, waving a feather duster in her sister's home movie. At 30, she packed her Honda Civic and drove to Los Angeles with no connections and a very big dream. Two months later, a producer who had promised to keep her safe drugged and assaulted her. Angela reported it. She went to the hospital, then sat with police for six hours, then waited nine months for a district attorney to tell her the case wouldn't be prosecuted. And she made a very intentional choice. She would heal right there in LA, through therapy, yoga, and a lot of anxiety attacks behind a bar, because he had already taken enough. A few years later, burned out and waiting for her big break, she said yes to crewing a sailboat from Panama to the Marquesas. She had never sailed. One week out, the world shut down. Borders closed, plans changed daily, and what was supposed to be six weeks turned into 49 days at sea, including sixteen days with just two people on board and a storm straight out of Castaway. She kept the camera rolling the whole time. That footage became her documentary Quarantine at Sea, and the rest of the story became her memoir, Worst Tits Ever. This conversation is about survival, faith, and the moment Angela realized she could stop waiting for someone to hand her the role and start creating it herself. What You'll Hear: Moving to LA at 30 and why knowing her values early mattered so much The producer who groomed her by promising to keep her safe What reporting an assault actually looked like, and why she understands why so many women don't Choosing to heal in the same city where it happened Pushing through anxiety attacks while bartending and auditioning The dream that helped her say yes to crossing the Pacific Being stranded at sea as COVID closed every border Learning to sail in a 15-minute tutorial and riding out a storm near the equator Recognizing an abusive relationship and fighting to keep her documentary Why she stopped waiting to be chosen Guest Bio: Angela Harger Thompson is an actress, filmmaker, and storyteller whose work spans film, commercial, voiceover, and now the written word. Her screen credits have included Sense of Urgency, Something in the Woods, the web series Austin Wannabes, and the video game DC Universe Online, where she voiced the iconic DC Comics character The Question. Her transformative experience began in January 2020, when she wrote a single goal in her journal at a church Dream Day: let God tell a great story through me. She had no idea that would soon unfold in the most unexpected way. A few weeks later, she boarded a sailboat in Panama and set out on a three-to-four-week passage across the Pacific. One week in, a satellite email changed everything. COVID-19 had become a global pandemic. With island borders closed and nowhere to land, Angela found herself stranded at sea, navigating squalls, relational conflict, and her own spiritual awakening. She kept the camera rolling the entire time. That footage became Quarantine at Sea (2022), a feature-length documentary she directed, produced, and starred in, now streaming on Amazon, Apple TV, and Google Play. But the story was bigger than what the documentary could hold. Her memoir Worst Tits Ever tells the rest: a raw, laugh-out-loud funny, heartbreakingly honest story of faith and the hard work of rebuilding. Foreword writer and actress Jen Lilley describes it as "a love story, a survival story, and a coming-of-age-in-your-thirties story." Believing every person carries a story worth telling, Angela founded The Storytell Initiative to help others find and share theirs. She lives in Southern California with her husband, Dustin. She is grateful to catch the sunsets over the Pacific, though now safely from a beach. Website: https://angelahargerproductions.com Quarantine at Sea on Prime Video: https://www.primevideo.com/detail/0LZUYBIYA02UYEYORJXKNF3D33 Worst Tits Ever on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Worst-Tits-Angela-Harger-Thompson/dp/B0G8R4BLXF Listen and follow: www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/follow Subscribe to the newsletter: https://thelifeshiftpodcast.beehiiv.com/ You Might Also Like: Reclamation: Coming Back To The Girl Who Got Shut Down Starting Over: You Can Lose Everything and Still Be Okay Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Some goodbyes don't come with a conversation. They come with a phone you keep picking up and putting back down. Brittany Perham grew up in a house full of friends and happy memories, with a mom who protected her and her brother, and a father whose drinking nobody named out loud. In college, when things got scary, she made one of the hardest grown-up decisions of her life. She stopped answering his calls. The silence stretched to almost fifteen years. When her brother reconnected with him before his wedding, Brittany found herself back in a little bit of contact, just in time for her father's final year. There was one good phone call, a recipe, a "good to talk to you." And then there was a hospital room at Mass General, where she and her brother had to decide to let him go. Then came the surprise. Weeks before he died, her father had changed his will and named her the executor of an estate that turned out to be buried in debt. It took almost seven years to close. This is a tender, honest conversation about estrangement, about guilt and sadness living side by side, and about how a story keeps changing each time we tell it. Brittany is a poet and a teacher, and she talks about her father with so much care and so much honesty. I loved every minute of this one. What You'll Hear: Growing up in what looked like the perfect childhood while living with a father's quiet addiction The decision at 21 to get a therapist and step away from her dad Why estrangement never really feels like freedom Walking around the house holding the phone, unable to make the call The one good phone call, and a recipe she'll never forget Taking her father off life support and the strange intimacy of that moment Being named executrix of an indebted estate she never saw coming Why the story of her father is ultimately a story of not knowing Guest Bio:Brittany Perham's new memoir, Executrix (University of Georgia Press), won the 2025 AWP Sue William Silverman Prize for Creative Nonfiction. She is also the author of Double Portrait (W.W. Norton), which won the Barnard Women Poets Prize and was a finalist for the Northern California Book Award; The Curiosities (Free Verse Editions); and, with Kim Addonizio, the collaborative word/art project The Night Could Go in Either Direction (SHP). Her writing has received support from the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, the Hemingway House, the James Merrill House Foundation, Vermont Studio Center, the Wallace Stegner Fellowship Program, and Yaddo. She taught for fifteen years at Stanford University before joining the English faculty at Endicott College, where she is an associate professor. She lives in San Francisco and Massachusetts. Website: www.brittanyperham.comExecutrix (University of Georgia Press): https://ugapress.orgListen and follow: www.thelifeshiftpodcast.com/followSubscribe to the newsletter: https://thelifeshiftpodcast.beehiiv.com/ Keywords: estrangement, grieving an estranged parent, alcoholic father, children of alcoholics, executor of an estate, grief, memoir, memory, family stories, complicated grief You Might Also Like: Grief and Fatherhood: The Song That Changed Everything Part of Me Died That Day: Learning to Live After the Worst Day of Your Life Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices