A Place of Yes | A Grief Podcast

Anna Nordberg was 13 when her mother was diagnosed with cancer and 17 when she died. During those years, her mother did something Anna only fully understood much later: she prepared her children for a life without her. There were no grand bucket-list trips or dramatic final gestures. Instead, she kept life as normal as possible—showing up for track meets, filling out permission slips, being honest about her illness, and making sure Anna and her brother knew exactly how deeply they were loved. For years afterward, Anna kept moving forward, waiting for the moment when grief would finally feel finished. Instead, she discovered that losing her mother would continue to take on new meaning with every stage of her own life.
In this conversation, Anna and Heather talk about what it means to become a mother without your own mom and how parenthood can completely change the way you understand an old loss. Anna shares the “ghost conversations” she still has with her mother, the fear of leaving her own children too soon, and the realization that motherhood made her grieve not only what she had lost, but everything her mother never got to experience. She also shares how going through her mother’s journals and papers eventually inspired her debut novel, When She Was Ours, and why writing fiction allowed her to explore some of the complicated feelings around grief that are hardest to say out loud. Together, Anna and Heather reflect on the ordinary days that become precious in hindsight, carrying our parents into the families we create, and the surprising ways a relationship can continue to evolve long after someone is gone.
Resources & Ways to Connect
Anna Nordberg Website and Book: https://www.annanordberg.com/

Anna Nordberg on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/annanordberg_writer/

Jake’s Help from Heaven Website: http://jakeshelpfromheaven.org/

Jake’s Help from Heaven Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jakeshelp

Jake’s Help from Heaven Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jakeshelp

APOY Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aplaceofyespodcast

Heather’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heathersstraughter

Our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@aplaceofyespodcast

For more of Heather’s writing and thoughts: https://ohheather.substack.com/

Everything’s Jakey (Substack): https://everythingsjakey.substack.com/

Casey Mulligan Walsh was just 12 years old when she lost both of her parents within ten months of each other. Suddenly uprooted from the only life she knew, she was sent to live with relatives in upstate New York while her older brother remained behind. Eight years later, her brother died unexpectedly, leaving Casey as the last surviving member of her immediate family. She built a family of her own, determined to create the stability she had lost so young. Then, years later, she experienced the loss every parent fears when her 20-year-old son, Eric, was killed in a car accident.
In this conversation, Casey and Heather look beyond the losses themselves to the ways they shaped everything that followed. Casey reflects on learning as a child not to take up too much space, losing the people who were the “keepers” of her history, and her lifelong instinct to control what she could in a world that had repeatedly shown her how little control we actually have. She also shares who Eric was before his death—the funny, charismatic, adventure-seeking son who made her a mother—and how his spirit continues to influence the life she leads today. Together, Casey and Heather explore the difference between surviving tragedy and eventually finding meaning within it, the possibility of post-traumatic growth, and the belief that when we cannot change what has happened to us, we can still decide what we do with the life that remains. It’s a conversation about unimaginable loss, the people who stay with us, and believing, even in the darkest moments, that there can be another way.
Resources & Ways to Connect
Casey Mulligan Walsh Website: https://caseymulliganwalsh.com/

The Full Catastrophe: All I Ever Wanted, Everything I Feared: https://caseymulliganwalsh.com/the-full-catastrophe-all-i-ever-wanted-everything-i-feared/

Jake’s  Help from Heaven Website: http://jakeshelpfromheaven.org/

Jake’s Help from Heaven Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jakeshelp

Jake’s Help from Heaven Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jakeshelp

APOY Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aplaceofyespodcast

Heather’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heathersstraughter

Our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@aplaceofyespodcast

For more of Heather’s writing and thoughts: https://ohheather.substack.com/

Everything’s Jakey (Substack): https://everythingsjakey.substack.com/

Before she turned 30, Tara Accardo lost both of her parents to cancer within six months of each other. An only child who had always considered her parents her “North Stars,” Tara suddenly found herself navigating a world without the two people she would have turned to when everything fell apart. Her mother’s illness introduced her to anticipatory grief before she even had a name for it, and while she was still reeling from that loss, her father’s health began to decline. Then, less than a year after his death, Tara lost Princess, the beloved dog she’d had since childhood. In the span of a year and a half, the family and sense of home she had always known were gone.
In this conversation, Tara and Heather talk about compound grief, the loneliness of losing your parents young, and the strange process of figuring out who you are after loss fundamentally changes you. Tara shares how giving herself grace helped her begin to rebuild, eventually leading her to create Losses Become Gains, become a certified grief coach, and launch the Life With Grief podcast. They also explore the complicated idea that something meaningful can grow from devastating loss without suggesting the loss itself was somehow worth it, why grief can make the small stuff feel a whole lot smaller, and how community can help us feel seen when the people around us simply don’t understand. Tara also shares the story behind Letters of Light, her monthly snail-mail project offering fellow grievers a tangible reminder that they aren’t alone. It’s an honest conversation about the person you were before loss, the person you become afterward, and learning to make room for both.
Resources & Ways to Connect
Losses Become Gains: https://lossesbecomegains.com/

Jake’s Help from Heaven Website: http://jakeshelpfromheaven.org/

Jake’s Help from Heaven Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jakeshelp

Jake’s Help from Heaven Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jakeshelp

APOY Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aplaceofyespodcast

Heather’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heathersstraughter

Our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@aplaceofyespodcast

For more of Heather’s writing and thoughts: https://ohheather.substack.com/

Everything’s Jakey (Substack): https://everythingsjakey.substack.com/

Ann Marie Farino’s oldest son, Richard, was charismatic, funny, deeply empathetic, and the kind of kid who could walk into a room and connect with just about anyone. But beginning around age 12, he also struggled with depression, anxiety, and other mental health challenges that eventually gave way to addiction. For years, Ann Marie did everything she could to help—therapists, schools, treatment programs, boundaries, second chances, and countless “deep breath mom moments” when there was no obvious right answer. Eventually, Richard got sober and stayed that way for the final three years of his life. He was working, building a life, and preparing to get married when, in June 2016, he died by suicide at just 24 years old.
In this conversation, Ann Marie and Heather talk honestly about what it means to love a child through mental illness and addiction, the limits of what even a fiercely devoted parent can fix, and the complicated reality of losing someone to suicide. Ann Marie shares why, even during Richard’s years of sobriety, part of her always feared what might happen, and how she came to understand that life had simply become too painful for him. They also talk about the joy and humor that existed alongside the chaos, the “divine nudges” that continue to make Ann Marie feel Richard’s presence, and the bench in his hometown that has become an unexpected place of connection and remembrance. Nearly ten years after Richard’s death, Ann Marie has learned that grief and joy can occupy the same life—and that the love between a mother and her son doesn’t end when he dies.
Resources & Ways to Connect
Ann Marie Farino Website: https://annmariefarino.com/

Chronic Chaos: A Son’s Addiction, A Mother’s Love, and Her Quest to Find Joy: https://amplifypublishinggroup.com/product/nonfiction/health-medicine-and-wellness/mental-health/chronic-chaos/

Jake’s Help from Heaven Website: http://jakeshelpfromheaven.org/

Jake’s Help from Heaven Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jakeshelp

Jake’s Help from Heaven Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jakeshelp

APOY Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aplaceofyespodcast

Heather’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heathersstraughter

Our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@aplaceofyespodcast

For more of Heather’s writing and thoughts: https://ohheather.substack.com/

Everything’s Jakey (Substack): https://everythingsjakey.substack.com/

It’s been just over two years since Melissa Allen lost her daughter, Liv, after a sudden illness at 18 years old. Melissa has joined Heather on A Place of Yes before, but grief looks different now. Some days she can work, laugh, show up for the people she loves, and feel genuinely grateful for her life. Other days, a photograph can send her right back to the earliest days of loss. And as her younger daughter, Sophia, graduated from high school and left for college, Melissa found herself confronting an entirely new layer of grief: watching one daughter reach the milestones the other never had the chance to experience.
In this conversation, Melissa and Heather talk honestly about what child loss looks like years later and the losses that continue to emerge as life moves forward. They discuss the complicated mix of pride and heartbreak that comes with watching their surviving children grow up, the strange loneliness of an empty nest after losing a child, and the work of allowing yourself to have terrible days without letting them consume your life. Melissa also reflects on how the Live Like Liv Foundation has given her a way to help others and keep Liv’s memory present, while acknowledging that grief work can sometimes carry its own emotional cost. Together, she and Heather talk about giving their living children space to build lives of their own, finding comfort in the smallest memories, and the perspective that comes from experiencing the unimaginable. As Melissa puts it, “death humbles you”—and more than two years later, she is still learning what it means to carry that truth forward.
Resources & Ways to Connect
Live Like Liv Foundation: https://livelikelivfoundation.org/

Jake’s Help from Heaven Website: http://jakeshelpfromheaven.org/

Jake’s Help from Heaven Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jakeshelp

Jake’s Help from Heaven Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jakeshelp

APOY Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aplaceofyespodcast

Heather’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heathersstraughter

Our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@aplaceofyespodcast

For more of Heather’s writing and thoughts: https://ohheather.substack.com/

Everything’s Jakey (Substack): https://everythingsjakey.substack.com/