Guest Interviews

If you have been frustrated because you are not following the “five stages of grief”, you are not alone. What most people do not realize is that these five stages are to be applied to those who have received the news they have a terminal illness. They are NOT for someone who is grieving the […]

The five stages of grief were not to be applied to those who are grieving the loss of a loved one, but for those who have received the news they have a terminal illness. If you have been frustrated because you are not following those five steps, you will be relieved to hear about the […]

Here in the United States, the last Monday in May is Memorial Day, which is a day to honor those who have given their lives for our country. In this episode, Laura focuses on pareavors who have lost their children because of being in the military. Their child chose to go into the armed forces, […]

Those of us who have lost a child have been through a trauma. We are dealing with traumatic grief. Many parents also have PTSD. How do we get through the suffocating darkness and things like night terrors? Some go to their physician who will write them prescriptions for anxiety or to help them sleep. It […]

“There is no magical age when the death of our child doesn’t affect us in a very deep and profound way. Whether the child died in the womb or was in their sixties, the wrongness of their death causes trauma, and we are never the same.” (Laura Diehl – When Tragedy Strikes: Rebuilding Your Life […]

Those of us who have lost a child have been through a trauma. We are dealing with traumatic grief. Many parents also have PTSD. How do we get through the suffocating darkness and things like night terrors? Some go to their physician who will write them prescriptions for anxiety or to help them sleep. It […]

When we find ourselves thrown into the dark world of child loss, some of us know we need help right away and find ways to connect with other bereaved parents almost immediately. Some of us take longer to realize how important it is to be around others who “get it”. Other parents who are further […]

After our child dies, we all seem to struggle with the guilt of why we didn’t do more, or do something differently, that would have prevented their death. How do we get past that? Does that feeling ever go away? In this episode, Laura brings on a guest, Sara Nelson, to discuss this. Sara Faith […]

In this episode, Laura brings on a guest to talk about a deeply serious and needed topic after the death of our child. How important is your child to you, and how important is God to you? Often, we don’t realize the love for our child can overshadow our love for God, causing us to […]

Many pareavors (bereaved parents) struggle with feeling guilty for laughing or doing special things like taking vacations after the death of their child, believing it isn’t right to enjoy life again. In this episode, Laura brings on Lin Findlay to share about her own journey in this area after the death of her daughter, Aubrie, […]

This episode with Anne Moss Rogers is one with a lot of practical advice for those who are struggling deeply in the darkness of grief after child loss. Being a mom who lost her son to suicide, Anne Moss made a conscious decision to figure out how to work through the guilt, shame and horrific […]

For Beverly Shoemaker, finding meaning and purpose in her life was extremely difficult after her husband ended his own life three years after their son, Nick, died. Her husband’s decision to take his own life left Bev in an even darker place, filled with anger, bitterness, and deep depression. Bev thought she would never ever […]

Today Laura is joined by Bev Shoemaker, who lost her son, Nick, back in 2004 in a car accident. She was contacted within days by another mom who had lost her own son several years previously. This caring woman shared things with Bev that helped her immensely, in navigating through the darkness after Nick’s death. […]

Our grief journey can be compared to taking a road trip – an unplanned road trip – which is what Laura discussed last week with her guest, Jill Theriault. In this week’s episode, Jill shares how the road signs we see while traveling can also guide us on our grief journey. They specifically talk about […]

Most road trips are well planned, but occasionally they are not. Some things in life are planned, but losing a child is definitely an unplanned part of our life’s journey. Today’s guest, Jill Theriault, has been on this journey as a bereaved parent for over 20 years after her two-year-old son, Nathan, died from meningitis. […]

Recently Laura received a response from one of the Weekly Word of Hope emails. The pareavor was upset with how Laura’s email said, “Neither life nor death is in our hands. God is the one who gives life within the womb. And God chooses when each person takes their last heartbeat.” Part of what this […]

Last week was the first part of a discussion with my friend Joy Ware Miller. If you didn’t hear it, you may want to listen to that one first and then come back. It is called From Surviving to Thriving and has a lot of encouragement. Both weeks are from an interview back in 2017 […]

Joy Ware Miller lost her healthy and active thirteen-year-old son as he collapsed from an unknown heart condition at the local YMCA one afternoon in March of 2005. Joy has become one of my treasured friends who brings encouragement, as she has been on this journey several years longer than I have. In this episode, […]

This is the 100th episode of the Grieving Parents Sharing Hope Podcast, which means it has been going faithfully for almost two years already! In trying to decide what to do for this special episode, I realized that many of our listeners might not know things like how the ministry of GPS Hope got started, […]

This is the last episode in our series of Grief and Music after Child Loss. What you will be hearing is part of a conversation I had with Hannah Linton and her mom, Kathi Wilson that was originally recorded as a video in 2017 for our Hope & Healing Virtual Summit (online conference). Kathi is […]

We are continuing with our series on Grief and Music by talking to Angelique Marketon. Angelique has been a songwriter and worship leader for many years.  Her ministry through music was starting to grow to a national level, as area churches would ask her to come and lead worship for their events, and her recordings […]

We are in a series of Grief and Music. This week, our guest, Yolanda Blade-Rory, shares with us her experience with music and worship after the unexpected death of her seven-year-old young son, Sasha, who died of an unknown heart condition. The episode ends with listening to one of the songs Yolanda wrote in her […]

This is a topic I don’t hear talked about much, but it affects so many of us.  Who would have ever thought we would be faced with the decision of donating our child’s organs? There are so many mixed emotions about this, whether you did, or whether you didn’t. The world of organ donation is […]

Every time a new year shows up, it brings lots of emotions for many of us bereaved parents, especially if this is the first time the calendar has turned to a new year since your child died. It can seem horrible because it feels like we are leaving our child behind as we go into […]

At GPS Hope, we get emails from those of you who are struggling in your marriage after the death of your child, or who have questions about how your spouse is grieving. So, I decided it was time to do a podcast episode on this topic. Of course, this means I got to bring in […]