The Grief Between Us

As Season One of The Grief Between Us comes to a close, Patti reflects on the stories, lessons, and moments that shaped this first season of conversations. Throughout the season, guests shared experiences of death, divorce, chronic illness, infertility, mental health struggles, faith transitions, loneliness, family rupture, and profound life change. Together, these stories revealed a deeper truth:...

What happens when survival has been your normal for so long that joy begins to feel unfamiliar? In this episode of The Grief Between Us, Patti sits down with Mariah Pagliasotti, Executive Producer of The Grief Between Us and Executive Assistant to The Waiting Place Foundation, for a deeply personal conversation about trauma, chronic illness, grief, emotional safety, and learning how to build a lif...

What does healing actually look like after deep loss? In this episode of The Grief Between Us, Patti sits with Angela to explore widowhood, long-term grief, faith, and the complicated journey of learning how to move forward without feeling like you’re leaving someone behind. Angela shares the experience of losing her husband nearly eleven years ago and reflects on the ways grief has changed over t...

What happens when grief doesn’t come just once, but in layers? In this episode of The Grief Between Us, Patti sits with Darlyn to explore the experience of carrying multiple forms of grief at the same time. Together, they talk about losing loved ones, navigating mental illness within a family, unresolved family ruptures, and the complicated reality of continuing forward while still holding pain. D...

What happens when the life you’re born into isn’t the life you choose to live? In this episode of The Grief Between Us, Patti sits with Jullian to explore what it means to grow up in instability, experience loss, and still choose a different path forward. Jullian shares her story of being removed from her parents’ home as a child, navigating the transition to living with her grandparents, and the...

What does it mean to grieve not only what was lost, but what was never allowed to fully begin? In this episode of The Grief Between Us, Patti sits with Sundy, a licensed marriage and family therapist, to explore the layered grief of pregnancy loss and the experience of becoming a mother through both loss and love. Sundy shares her story of losing two babies during pregnancy, the trauma of those mo...

What does it mean to grieve not just who someone was, but everything that never got to be? In this episode of The Grief Between Us, Patti sits with Arianne to explore the lifelong experience of sibling grief after the suicide of her sister, Megan. Nearly twenty years later, Arianne reflects on what it means to carry both love and loss over time, and how grief continues to evolve rather than disapp...

What happens when the life you built is no longer something you can choose to keep? In this episode of The Grief Between Us, Patti sits with John, a divorced father, to explore the kind of grief that doesn’t come from death, but from the loss of a family as it once was, and the future that was imagined. John speaks honestly about what it means to live with limited agency, to miss your children whi...

Sometimes what we need most in grief is not answers, but to be seen. In this episode, Patti sits with Rob, a chaplain, to explore what it means to truly accompany someone in pain. Through personal experiences and reflections from his work, Rob shares how healing can begin when someone is willing to sit with us, without trying to fix, solve, or take the pain away. Together, they talk about the quie...

Some parts of grief don’t live in words. They live in the body. In this conversation, Patti sits with therapist Jessica Westover to explore the connection between emotional pain and physical experience. Together, they talk about how grief and trauma can show up in ways we don’t always recognize, including tension in the body, disrupted sleep, and a sense of feeling stuck even when we can explain w...

Some forms of grief are easy to name, while others remain largely unseen. In this conversation, Laila shares what it has been like to live with chronic illness and the quiet losses that have come with it. As her health began to shift, so did her sense of identity, her plans for the future, and the way she moved through everyday life. Together, Patti and Laila explore the emotional weight of invisi...

There are losses that cannot be explained or repaired, only carried. Tricia shares the story of losing her son and the life that followed in the aftermath of that loss. She reflects on the moment everything changed, the early days of grief, and the ways it reshaped her family and sense of self. This conversation moves through the realities of living with profound loss, including the tension betwee...

For some, grief is not only about loss, but about the unraveling of what once felt certain. Parker reflects on his experience growing up within a strong faith community and the gradual shift that occurred as he began to question his place within it. What followed was a deeply personal process of navigating identity, belonging, and the fear of losing connection with those he loved. Drawing from his...

In this opening episode of The Grief Between Us, Patti Merrill shares the heart behind the podcast and the conversations to come. This podcast was created as a space for honest conversations about grief, loss, and the ways our lives are reshaped in their aftermath. Each episode explores different experiences of grief, including how it affects identity, relationships, faith, and the process of heal...