Female Voices: Life and Loss

Female Voice: Life & Loss. Our podcast is dedicated to women from all walks of life, providing a supportive and encouraging platform that addresses the various challenges they face. We aim to offer compassionate guidance, share diverse stories, and equip listeners with practical advice and resources to help them grow, heal, and thrive through every stage of their journey.

Female Voices: Life and Loss is a education podcast hosted by Unknown Host, with 290 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Unknown Host hosts Female Voices: Life and Loss, a education show with 290 episodes published.

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  Episode #15

  Victoria DiGiovanni | What Happens When Grief Becomes a Song?

  Oct 1, 202643 minS3

  Episode 15 ~What Happens When Grief Becomes a Song? What happens when someone who has spent years supporting grieving people suddenly finds herself living the loss she understands professionally? In November 2024, Victoria’s longtime partner died suddenly. As a music therapist and grief counselor working in hospice care, she knew the language and theories of grief. But experiencing it personally brought an entirely different understanding. During a four-month leave, a lyric came to her during an intense grief burst: “Why does everything have to make sense when you’re gone?” One song grew into The Blue Album , a deeply personal musical project shaped around William Worden’s Tasks of Mourning. Victoria and Teresa talk about grieving a partner, why tears do not mean someone is “stuck,” and how music can give emotions somewhere to go when words are difficult to find. Victoria also shares simple ways people can engage with music, even without musical experience, and why continuing a bond with someone who died can be part of moving forward rather than leaving them behind. About Victoria: Victoria is a music therapist and grief counselor working in hospice/palliative care. She is also conducting doctoral research exploring music, grief, songwriting, and heartbeat song recordings. As the artist SH3, she created The Blue Album from her own experience of partner loss. In This Episode ● How losing her longtime partner changed Victoria’s understanding of grief as a professional ● How one lyric during a grief burst became The Blue Album ● William Worden’s Tasks of Mourning and why grief is not a linear process ● How intentional listening, improvisation, and songwriting can support emotional expression ● What continuing bonds can look like after someone dies ● How Victoria’s grief influenced her hospice work and doctoral research What You’ll Take Away ● Tears are not proof that you are moving backward. ● Grief does not follow a neat sequence or timeline. ● Music can help express feelings that are difficult to name. ● You do not need musical training to use music meaningfully. ● Healing does not require ending your connection with someone you love. Memorable Quotes ● Victoria: “You lose your best friend.” ● Victoria: “These emotions are just a human representation of the connection that we had.” ● Victoria: “Why does everything have to make sense when you’re gone?” ● Victoria: “You don’t need any music experience at all. The desire to engage in music is the only prerequisite.” ● Victoria: “This isn’t goodbye. It’s until we meet again.” ● Victoria: “Your tears are not a reflection of regression.” Mentioned in This Episode ● The Blue Album — Victoria’s grief-centered music project / available on music streaming platforms ( https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/99wcci0tvnojcqoki3hi2/6.-Until-We-Meet-Again.mp3rlkey=f62euqytqruiwe4xkwjgfzkmt&st=11o88tbn&e=2&dl=0 ) ● William Worden’s Tasks of Mourning ● Palliative and Hospice Care ● Romina Di Gasparo — Juno-nominated singer-songwriter and guitarist JOIN THE CONVERSATION Email: femalevoiceslifelosspodcast@gmail.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/femalevoiceslifeandloss/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/femalevoiceslifelosspodcast/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@femalevoiceslifelossYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/@FemaleVoicesLifeLossPodcast Subscribe, share, and leave a review to help more women feel seen, supported, and less alone. CONNECT WITH OUR GUEST Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sh3official Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sh3official/ Email: sh3official@gmail.com Website:https://www.sh3official.com/

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  Episode #14

  What Happens After: Grief, Memory, and Empathy with Diane Namm

  Sep 24, 202637 minS3

  Episode 14 ~ What Happens After: Grief, Memory, and Empathy Grief does not need to be ranked, rushed, or explained away. Sometimes what a grieving person needs most is permission to feel what they feel, and someone willing to stay and listen. In this episode of Female Voices: Life & Loss, Teresa Reiniger speaks with author and storyteller Diane Namm about grief, empathy, children, memory, and the story behind Diane’sillustrated book, What Happens After? After her family experienced several significant losses within a few years, Diane saw how difficult it could be to find language that validated grief, especially for children. Their conversation explores why adults can underestimate what children notice and carry, why guilt may show up after a death, and why remembering someone can become part of moving forward rather than “getting over” them. Diane and Teresa also talk about listening without fixing, creating space for emotion, journaling as a way to process what is hard to say aloud, and simple rituals that help maintain a meaningful connection with someone who has died. Diane Namm is an award-winning author and storyteller and the author of What Happens After? , a book created to open conversations about loss and validate grief across generations. In This Episode ● Why “loss is loss” and grief cannot be measured by outsiders● What children may absorb, question, and blame themselves for after a death● Why listening without judgment can be more helpful than trying to fix grief● How traditions, signs, letters, and memories can carry a relationship forward● Why grief has no deadline, and moving forward is different from getting over it● How journaling can create space to process feelings that are difficult to say What You’ll Take Away ● Your grief does not need to match anyone else’s timeline.● Children often understand and absorb more than adults realize.● Presence and listening can be meaningful forms of support.● Remembering someone can remain part of healing.● Writing can offer another way to express unfinished feelings. MEMORABLE QUOTES ● Diane: “Loss is universal. Grief is personal.”● Diane: “You don’t always have to have a solution, but it is important to listen.”● Diane: “It takes as long as it takes.”● Diane: “There’s a move forward, but you bring them with you.”● Diane: “Loss is loss, and there is no timeline.”● Teresa: “Permission to feel, permission to remember, permission to grieve without a deadline.” EPISODE CHAPTERS 01:05 — Why Talking About Loss Matters03:31 — The Story Behind What Happens After?07:09 — Why We Need to Stop Ranking Grief10:56 — What Genuine Empathy Looks Like14:41 — What Adults Can Miss About Children’s Grief18:32 — Grief Has No Deadline22:35 — Vulnerability, Emotion, and Feeling Safe24:43 — Writing and Journaling Through Grief28:12 — Letters, Goodbyes, and Continuing Bonds31:41 — The Audiobook as a “Verbal Hug”33:22 — The Message Diane Hopes Readers Remember34:03 — Where to Find What Happens After? Want to read What Happens After? Diane shared that listeners can visit: whathappensafter.store for a special Friends of the Author discount. The book is also available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Bookshop.org. JOIN THE CONVERSATION Email: femalevoiceslifelosspodcast@gmail.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/femalevoiceslifeandloss/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/femalevoiceslifelosspodcast/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@femalevoiceslifeloss\ Subscribe, share, and leave a review to help more women feel seen, supported, and less alone. CONNECT WITH OUR GUEST Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dianenamm/ Email: diane.namm@gmail.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dianenamm/ Website: https://www.dianenamm.com/

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  Episode #13

  Lauren Johnston | Childhood Grief, Relationship Loss & Starting Over After 60

  Sep 17, 202654 minS3

  What happens when you’ve carried loss for so long that you stop realizing just how much you’ve survived? Lauren Johnston experienced the death of her mother at 10, lost her father in her 20s, and lived through the deaths of several friends and loved ones across the years. For a long time, she simply thought of all that loss as normal life. In this conversation, Lauren joins Teresa Reiniger to explore how early grief followed her into adulthood, especially through fears of abandonment, relationships, divorce, and the difficult realization that sometimes trying not to lose someone can mean losing yourself. Lauren also shares how writing her memoir has brought memories and emotions back to the surface, why she has developed what she calls an “intimate relationship with grief,” and how leaving Austin after 40 years and moving to Belize at 60 opened an unexpected new chapter. This episode is not about rushing past grief. It is about recognizing what you’ve carried, honoring what mattered, and allowing yourself to ask a new question: How do I want to live differently now? Guest: Lauren Johnston Lauren spent 18 years as a hairdresser before moving into more than 20 years of work as an intuitive life advisor and coach. She is currently writing a memoir and sharing personal essays through Substack about life, loss, love, and beginning again. In This Episode ● How losing her mother at 10 shaped Lauren’s fear of abandonment in later relationships ● The moment she realized staying in a relationship meant abandoning herself ● Why accumulated grief can begin to feel like simply “normal life” ● Grieving relationships, a marriage, a city, friendships, and imagined futures ● Beginning again at 60 and building a new life in Belize ● How memoir writing brought old memories, grief, and emotions back to the surface What You’ll Take Away ● Grief does not have to be compared or ranked. ● Early loss can quietly influence adult relationships. ● Choosing yourself is not the same as giving up on others. ● Beginning again does not require erasing your past. ● You can carry grief and still make room for joy, love, and possibility. Memorable Quotes Lauren: “By staying with John, I’m abandoning myself.” Lauren: “As deep as I can feel grief is as deep as I can feel love and joy.” Lauren: “Grief is grief. There’s no degree to it.” Lauren: “We’ve got to step out of something in order to step into something.” Lauren: “Pain means it mattered. And grief is the process of it.” Lauren: “Don’t fear grief because it sits right next to love.” JOIN THE CONVERSATION Email: femalevoiceslifelosspodcast@gmail.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/femalevoiceslifeandloss/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/femalevoiceslifelosspodcast/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@femalevoiceslifeloss Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@FemaleVoicesLifeLossPodcast Subscribe, share, and leave a review to help more women feel seen, supported, and less alone. CONNECT WITH OUR GUEST Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/laurenjohnstonvibrationelevation Instagram https://ww: w.instagram.com/laurenjohnstonlifecoach Email: laureno.spot@gmail.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-johnston-59053519/ Website: https://laurenjohnston.me/

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  Episode #12

  What to Say to Someone Who Is Grieving | Important Announcement

  Sep 10, 202623 minS3

  Episode 12 ~ What to Say to Someone Who Is Grieving | Important Announcement What if one of the most natural questions we ask after a death is also one we don’t always need answered? When someone tells us a loved one has died, our instinct is often to ask, What happened? But for the grieving person, answering that question may mean returning to a hospital room, accident, diagnosis, phone call, or moment that changed everything.In this solo episode, Teresa Reiniger explores the difference between genuine compassion and curiosity—and why grieving people deserve to decide when, where, how, and with whom they share the details of their loss. Through experiences from her grief support and coaching work, Teresa talks about emotional safety, boundaries, privacy, the body’s response to painful memories, and why telling a difficultstory can sometimes feel healing and other times deeply exhausting. Most importantly, she invites us to shift the conversation from “How did they die?” toward something more human: “Would you like to tell me about them?” This episode is both permission for grieving people to protect their stories and guidance for anyone who wants to support someone with greater compassion. About Teresa: Teresa Reiniger is a grief specialist, life transition guide, founder of Living After Grief, and host of Female Voices: Life & Loss. In This Episode ● Why repeatedly answering “What happened?” can become emotionally exhausting. ● How safety, readiness, trust, and choice change the experience of sharing a painful story. ● Setting boundaries around who receives the tender parts of your grief. ● The difference between privacy and secrecy after loss. ● Why asking about someone’s life can create deeper connection than asking about their death. ● How the same lesson can apply to pregnancy loss, divorce, infertility, illness, and other life-changing losses. What You’ll Take Away ● You do not owe everyone the details of your loss. ● Your body may give you useful information about when you’re not ready to share. ● Privacy can be a healthy form of choice. ● Compassion does not require knowing every detail. ● Sometimes a better question is simply, “Tell me about them.” Memorable Quotes Teresa: “Someone else’s curiosity does not mean you need to share.” Teresa: “Your story belongs to you.” Teresa: “Privacy can sound like, ‘I decide who knows.’” Teresa: “One question asks for information. The other asks for connection.” Teresa: “Maybe we need to start asking, ‘Tell me how they lived.’” Teresa: “The person you love was so much more than the way they died.” Episode Chapters & Timestamps ~00:00 — Do We Really Need to Know What Happened?~04:00 — Why Retelling the Story Can Feel Exhausting ~08:00 — Your Story, Your Choice, Your Boundaries ~12:00 — Privacy Is Not the Same as Secrecy ~15:00 — Ask About Their Life, Not Only Their Death ~19:00 — When Curiosity Shows Up in Other Kinds of Loss ~22:00 — Remembering the Whole Story A Special Thank You to Wayna We’re deeply grateful to Wayna for being part of the Female Voices journey and for the stories, conversations, insight, and heart she shared along the way. Her voice helped shape meaningful moments within this community, and we appreciate everything she brought to the podcast. Thank you, Wayna, for being part of Female Voices: Life & Loss. We’re wishing you continued growth, joy, and success in everything ahead. JOIN THE CONVERSATION Email: femalevoiceslifelosspodcast@gmail.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/femalevoiceslifeandloss/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/femalevoiceslifelosspodcast/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@femalevoiceslifeloss Subscribe, share, and leave a review to help more women feel seen, supported, and less alone. CONNECT WITH OUR HOST Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LivingAfterGrief Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/livingaftergrief/?hl=en TikTok: https: //www.tiktok.com/@coachteresa5

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  Episode #11

  Suzy McNamara | When Grief Begins Before Goodbye, Caring for a Spouse With Early-Onset Alzheimer’s

  Sep 3, 202646 minS3

  Sometimes grief begins long before someone dies. It begins when the person you love is still beside you, but the life you knew together is already changing. In this episode, Teresa Reiniger sits down with Suzy McNamara for an honest conversation about caregiving, anticipatory grief, identity, faith, and carrying more than one devastating loss at once. Suzy spent five years as the primary in-home caregiver for her husband, Bob, after he was diagnosed with posterior cortical atrophy, a rare form of early-onset Alzheimer’s. She shares what it was like watching changes begin in his early 50s, protecting his dignity as his world became smaller, and slowly realizing that she was no longer only his wife, she had become his caregiver, advocate, and protector.Then, while Bob was entering the final stage of his illness, Suzy’s sister and best friend, Elizabeth, died. Suzy reflects on what happens when there is barely room to grieve because someone still depends on you. This conversation offers validation for caregivers who feel unseen, people experiencing anticipatory grief, and anyone carrying layered losses. About our guest: Suzy McNamara is a widow, mother of four adult children, former primary caregiver to her husband Bob, and author of The Silkworm, the Magician, and the Sister Tree: A Tale of Love and Loss. In This Episode ● How early-onset Alzheimer’s changed Bob’s identity, career, relationships, and independence. ● Why grief can begin while the person you love is still physically present. ● How Suzy’s identity shifted from wife to caregiver, advocate, and protector. ● Protecting a loved one’s dignity when others do not understand their limitations. ● Grieving Suzy’s sister Elizabeth while continuing full-time caregiving. ● How faith, writing, friendship, and a smaller support circle helped Suzy keep going. What You’ll Take Away ● Anticipatory grief is real grief. ● Caregivers can lose parts of their identity, too. ● Protecting someone may require disappointing other people. ● Surviving one difficult day deserves recognition. ● You do not need a large circle—you need people who can truly stay. MEMORABLE QUOTES Suzy: “There are so many little tragedies in the big tragedy of Alzheimer’s.” Suzy: “That’s when the grieving really begins.” Suzy: “The caregiver loses their identity for sure.” Suzy: “You do have to build sort of a wall around your heart.” Suzy: “Getting through one day is a huge, huge accomplishment.” Teresa: “Grief does not always wait for one loss to end before another one begins.” EPISODE CHAPTERS 00:00 — When Grief Begins Before Death 03:33 — Bob’s Early-Onset Alzheimer’s Story 08:26 — The Fear and Shame Before Diagnosis 13:28 — When Alzheimer’s Arrives in Midlife 18:00 — Losing the Identity of Wife and Becoming Caregiver 19:48 — Protecting Bob’s Dignity and Safety 24:59 — Grieving a Sister While Caring for a Husband 28:16 — When Caregiving Leaves No Room to Grieve 29:26 — The Story Behind Suzy’s Memoir 33:30 — Finding the People Who Can Truly Stay 35:48 — Getting Through One Day Is an Accomplishment 39:32 — Suzy’s Book and Audiobook 42:19 — A Reminder for Caregivers Who Feel Unseen JOIN THE CONVERSATION Email: femalevoiceslifelosspodcast@gmail.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/femalevoiceslifeandloss/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/femalevoiceslifelosspodcast/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@femalevoiceslifeloss Subscribe, share, and leave a review to help more women feel seen, supported, and less alone. CONNECT WITH OUR GUEST Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/suzy.mcnamara Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mcnamara.suzy Email: suzy@suzymcnamara.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzymcnamara/ Website: https://suzymcnamara.com/

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