For Those We Lost: COVID Stories

Year One Update This show launched one year ago today. In this short bonus episode, I talk about how I got the idea to start this show, a little bit about each guest this year and how you can help the show grow. Here are the links I talk about: Stolen Goodbyes podcast Facebook COVID-19 Loss Support for Family & Friends   Cathy's Instagram Joanie's Instagram Support the show If you&ap...

Episode 29. Amberly in Missouri In this episode, I will be talking with Amberly in Missouri. Amberly lost her grandfather, Raymond, to COVID on December 28, 2020. This is Amberly's first time talking about her grandfather and his death and how it has changed her life. Amberly spent so much time with her grandparents while she was growing up and her grandpa was an important father figure in he...

Episode 27. Kasandra on Long Island In this episode, I will be talking with Kasandra on Long Island. Kasandra lost her brother, Louis, to COVID on March 31, 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic and she talks about feeling very stuck in 2020. She feels that with the world "moving on" everyone has forgotten about those we've lost and those who are still sick and dying even now. Kasan...

Episode 26. Deidre in Oklahoma In this episode, I will be talking with Deidre in Oklahoma. Deidre lost her parents to COVID just 16 days apart. Her stepfather, Asa died on December 27, 2020 and her mom, Catherine passed away on January 13, 2021. She was able to be with both of her parents when they passed away and talks a lot about the difficulties of losing them and how isolated she felt. When we...

Episode 25. Debra in Florida In this episode, I will be talking with Debra in Florida. Debra lost her brother, Bobby, to COVID on April 29, 2020. Bobby was born intellectually disabled and so even though he was 55 when he passed away, Debra describes him as very much a big kid. He had a caring nature and lived in the moment. Debra misses him so deeply and you can feel her love for her brother as s...

Episode 24. Joanie in Arizona In this episode, I will be talking with Joanie in Colorado. Joanie lost her son, Alexander Hanson-Bain, on February 7, 2020. Alex developed a cough and told his mom he'd be fine, but within a week of falling ill, he'd passed away. There were only early rumblings of the "coronavirus" when Alex died, but Joanie spoke to his doctors and hindsight poin...

Episode 23. Kim in Georgia In this episode, I will be talking with Kim in Georgia. Kim lost her husband, Mike, on June 10, 2021. Mike battled COVID for seven weeks and was on a ventilator for a time and then taken off and eventually had to be re-intubated. When he was off the ventilator the first time, Mike asked Kim if he died and went to heaven. He told her he visited heaven and he saw his grand...

Episode 22. Bianca in California In this episode, I will be talking with Bianca in California. Bianca lost her father, Anthony Faddis, to COVID in April 29, 2021. In episode 13, Nora in California told the story of losing her dad on April 29, 2021 and how on the same day her father-in-law also passed away from COVID. Bianca is Nora's sister-in-law and this episode is Bianca's story of lo...

Episode 21. Allison in Maryland In this episode, I will be talking with Allison in Maryland. Allison lost her parents to COVID in the summer of 2020. Her mom Terry passed away on July 30 and her father Kenneth passed away just five days later on August 4. Allison lives in Maryland and her parents lived in South Carolina, in the family home that Allison grew up in. Her parents had their own health...

Episode 20. Laura in Missouri In this episode, I talk with Laura in Missouri. Laura lost her mom to COVID in October 2021. Laura reached out to me via email and she said she wanted to tell her mom's story to share the humanity behind the pandemic. Laura's mom, Julie Yepsen, was a wife for over 40 years, she was a mother and she was Grandma Julie to her six grandkids. She was a giving, ca...

Episode 19. Jerri in West Virginia In this episode, I talk with Jerri in West Virginia. Jerri lost her husband, James, to COVID pneumonia on January 1, 2021 and just six weeks later she lost her mother-in-law also to COVID. Jerri has two girls and they lost their dad and their grandma within six week of each other. Jerri's husband James was a retired marine and was a police officer in their s...

Episode 18. Sara in Pennsylvania In this episode, I will be talking with Sara in Pennsylvania. Sara and her family were exposed to H1N1 years ago and since then, they have been navigating complex medical auto immune issues. Because of this, Sara and her husband had their eye on the news when word of what we now call COVID19 first started popping up in Wuhan, China. Sara and her family decided to &...

Episode 17. Lisa in Nashville In this episode, I will be talking with Lisa in Nashville. She relocated to Nashville from New York City in late 2019 to help her dad as he recovered from a serious illness. Lisa lived in New York City on and off for over 10 years to be near her significant other, Ben. Ben was a MTA train conductor in New York City transit authority for 22 years and he passed away of...

Episode 16. Cathy in Houston In this episode I'm joined by Cathy in Houston, Texas. Cathy lost her father, Steve Wright, to COVID on January 4, 2021. Cathy talks about her dad and how much time their family spent with him, in part because it was their way to be together, but also because Cathy lost her mom in January 2015 to cancer. After that loss, her dad wanted to be "extra hands&quot...

Episode 15. Mary & Tammy in West Virginia In this episode, I'm joined by mother and daughter, Mary and Tammy from West Virginia. Tammy reached out to me on behalf of her mother, Mary. Tammy told me that her mom had a lot of anger about losing her husband to COVID. Mary and her husband, Bob, were married for almost 57 years when he passed away in October of 2020. Tammy felt that if her mom...

Episode 14. Dawn in Alabama In this episode I'm joined by Dawn from Alabama. Dawn is a family nurse practitioner at an urgent care in a town outside of Birmingham, Alabama and she lost her father to COVID in January 2021. After her dad passed away, Dawn wrote out his story and all the memories she had of him growing up. Dawn's dad operated coin laundries in Alabama and he used to find fl...

Episode 13. Nora in California In this episode, I talk with Nora in California. She lost her father, Manuel Juarez, to COVID on April 29, 2021 and later that same day her father-in-law also died of COVID. Nora talks about all the changes her family made because of the pandemic and how difficult it was for all her family to stay isolated and as that isolation continues for all of them, how she is c...

Episode 12. Bari in Pennsylvania In this episode, I talk to Bari in Pennsylvania. Bari lost her mother in April of 2020. After Bari's mother passed away, she tried to find a support group and realized that there were no support groups (at that time) for people who'd lost someone to COVID. So she founded a support group called In Loving Memory 19 and it has become a non- profit organizati...

Episode 11. Maria in New Jersey In this episode I'll be talking to Maria in New Jersey. Maria lost her father to COVID in October of 2020, just a few days after he'd retired to Costa Rica. When vaccines were announced to the public in early 2021, Maria tried to get her mom, her husband and herself on the list to be vaccinated and had trouble making the appointments. Once she figured out...

Episode 10. Marilyn in Arizona In this episode I talk to Marilyn in Phoenix, Arizona. Marilyn is a science teacher and her husband works in science research. She talks about knowing how bad COVID was going to be and the choices her family made at the beginning of the pandemic to keep everyone safe. And they did such a good job. Despite all their efforts, Marilyn's family got COVID. Marilyn lo...

Episode 9. Jill in Los Angeles Jill lost her father to COVID in April 2020 near the beginning of the pandemic. Jill lives in Los Angeles and her father lived in Chicago. He was very active in the local community and her family thinks that he was probably exposed to COVID quite early before there were any real protocols in place. Jill's dad developed COVID pneumonia and from the moment he went...

Episode 8. Lisa in Indiana Lisa from Indiana shares her story of losing her dad to COVID in March of 2021.  We talk about so much in this episode and it's a long one, but there was no part of it I wanted to cut out. Lisa had to rehome her dad's dogs, take care of her mother, make the medical decisions for her father's care while he was in the hospital, and she had to decide when to...

Episode 7. Lauren in New Jersey When I started this podcast, I was angry that my mom died in a COVID outbreak in her nursing home. I was so focused on that that I didn't think about the people who worked there. Thank goodness for Lauren who reached out to me to tell her mom's story.  Lauren's mom was a CNA in a nursing home in Connecticut.  When the pandemic started their family dec...

Episode 6. Rima in New Jersey Rima lost her brother to COVID on May 10, 2020 which happened to be Mother's Day.  Rima shares her story with us in this episode and also talks so openly about how difficult it is to watch her mother's grief at losing a son on Mother's Day. To honor her brother's life, Rima started the Rami's Heart COVID-19 Memorial on January 25, 2021, on wha...

Episode 5. Kpana in New York City This is an amazing episode and I'm so glad Kpana shared her story with me.  Kpana and her family lost her mother last May around Mother's Day. She has three other siblings and they each took different roles in their mother's care, her end of life and afterward. There are so many good threads to follow in this episode, for example, Kpana and her fami...