Grieving Greatly: Life After Sudden and Traumatic Loss

Episode 13 | What I've Learned About Love and Loss After eighteen years of living with the loss of my son Harry, I wanted to pause and reflect on what grief has taught me. Not because I've "moved on."  Not because the pain has disappeared.  But because grief has changed the way I understand love, life, healing, and what it truly means to keep going after the unthinkable. In thi...

Grief doesn't always look like tears. Sometimes it looks like staying busy so you don't have to think. Sometimes it looks like drinking a little more than usual, scrolling for hours, overworking, withdrawing from the people you love, or trying to numb the pain in whatever way you can. In this episode of Grieving Greatly , we explore one of the most misunderstood parts of grief: how copin...

Some of the hardest days in grief… are the ones you see coming. Birthdays. Anniversaries. Holidays. The funeral date. The last conversation. The dates that once meant celebration—and now carry something completely different. In this episode of Grieving Greatly , we talk about anticipatory grief, how grief keeps time, how your body may react before your mind is ready, and why the “build-up” weeks c...

One of the hardest parts of grief is learning how to keep living when someone you love is no longer physically here. For many grieving people, moving forward can feel like a betrayal. We worry that healing means forgetting. We fear that laughter, joy, new experiences, or future plans somehow mean we are leaving our loved one behind. But what if moving forward isn't about letting go at all? In...

In this deeply personal episode of Grieving Greatly Podcast, Jen talks about one of the most painful and confusing parts of grief — how to keep the memory of someone you love alive without becoming completely consumed by the pain of missing them. Through her own experience after losing Harry, Jen explores the fear of forgetting, the heartbreak of remembering, and the complicated push and pull many...

When you lose someone you love…  you don’t just lose them. You can lose parts of yourself too. In this deeply personal episode of Grieving Greatly , I share the reality of identity after loss — the quiet, often unspoken grief of losing the version of yourself that existed alongside the person you loved. From the loss of everyday roles…  to the painful reminders in ordinary moments…  to the questio...

In this deeply personal episode of Grieving Greatly, Jenelle sits down with Nathan Darvill — Director of Expressive Mind Therapy, friend, colleague, and someone who has quietly carried many layers of grief throughout his life. Together, they explore a kind of grief that often goes unseen: The grief of surviving. Not just grief through death, but grief through trauma, identity loss, mental health s...

Grieving Greatly – Episode 6 “The Guilt No One Talks About in Grief” There are parts of grief people expect…  the sadness, the tears, the longing. But guilt often arrives quietly. The guilt of surviving.  The guilt of laughing again.  The guilt of not doing enough.  The guilt of moments you wish you could change.  And sometimes… the guilt of simply continuing to live when someone you love no longe...

Episode 5 — The Grief No One Sees: A Grandmother’s Perspective In this deeply personal episode of Grieving Greatly , I sit down with my mum to talk about a side of grief that is rarely spoken about the grief carried by the people trying to hold everyone else together. After losing my son Harry, I was consumed by my own pain. What I didn’t fully understand at the time was the heartbreak my mum was...

In the beginning, everyone is there. The messages.  The flowers.  The check-ins. But slowly…  the world starts to move on. And you don’t. This episode explores the quiet, deeply painful part of grief that often comes after the initial support fades —  when life returns to normal for everyone else… but you’re still living with loss. We talk about: The loneliness that follows grief  Feeling forgotte...

Grief doesn’t just change how you feel  it changes your relationships sometimes in ways you never expected. In this episode of Grieving Greatly , I talk about the quiet, often unspoken shifts that happen after loss, between partners, family members, friends… and even within yourself. Why does it feel like people grieve so differently?  Why do some relationships grow stronger, while others feel lik...

What happens after the shock… when reality starts to set in? In this episode of Grieving Greatly , I share what it was like in the days after losing my son, Harry—when the world expected us to start making decisions, planning a funeral, and somehow keep going while completely falling apart. This is the part of grief no one prepares you for. The practical reality.  The conversations.  The unbearabl...

What does grief feel like in the very beginning… when everything still feels unreal? In this deeply personal first episode of Grieving Greatly , I share the story of losing my son, Harry, suddenly—just before Christmas—and the shock that followed. The world kept moving. People kept talking. Life continued as if nothing had changed. But mine had completely stopped. Harry was the most beautiful litt...

Grieving Greatly is a podcast for anyone navigating life after sudden and traumatic loss. Hosted by grief counsellor Jen Connors, this podcast offers compassionate conversations about grief, trauma, healing, and the long road of learning to live after someone you love dies unexpectedly. After losing her son Harry suddenly, Jen understands firsthand how disorienting and overwhelming traumatic grief...