E16 Death Doesn’t Always Happen All at Once | Stan Ajemian

In this solo episode, I share the experience of losing both parents to terminal illness at nearly the same time during the darkest time of my life. My father was diagnosed with Alzheimer's and dementia, my mother with ALS. They were divorced, living in Montreal while I was in Colorado, and the losses unfolded slowly, in layers, over several years. What I came to understand is that death rarely arrives in a single moment. Long before either of my parents passed, I had already been grieving.This episode explores grief in a way that I hope feels honest and useful — not as a linear process with a clear beginning and end, but as something far more complex that shifts our sense of identity and meaning. I reflect on the difference between loss and grief, on what it means to mourn someone who is still alive, and on the profound beauty that can exist even in the hardest of goodbyes. I am recording this on the anniversary of my mother's death, and I offer this story in the hope that it meets you wherever you are in your own journey.To learn more about your host, Stan Ajemian:LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/stanajemianEmail: [email protected]: beingthechangecoaching.com