Coffee, Grief, And Gratitude

Laura Cathcart Robbins got divorced and sober at the same time. You’ll hear her laugh and say she doesn’t recommend doing these two huge life changes simultaneously. But she was unhappy and didn’t know why so she quit her marriage and addiction. In this tender conversation Laura talks about how her grief post divorced and in recovery felt like bungee jumping: the freefall before the bounce. She shares how her therapist helped her with self-discovery. Who is she is she’s not a mom, a wife, a hostess? She gave herself permission to take her time uncovering her identity even though her nature is to do things quickly. She let herself feel the spectrum of emotions. Now she says, “I love who I am. I love my life.”Laura Cathcart Robbins is the best-selling author of the Atria/Simon & Schuster memoir Stash, My Life In Hiding, and host of the popular podcast Only One In The Room. Laura has been featured on MSNBC, The Tameron Hall Show, C-SPAN, and Dr. Phil, and her work has appeared in The New York Times, Oprah Daily, Good Housekeeping, Today.com, Huffpo, and more.  In 2024, Laura’s New York Times Modern Love essay was turned into an episode of the Modern Love Podcast, and she was named the SDWF Memoirist Of The Year. A TEDx speaker, Laura currently sits on the advisory boards of the San Diego Writers’ Festival and The Buckley School’s nationally recognized DEI Board Committee. Thank you for letting us be in your ears. Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is created by Anne Gudger and Maria Gibson, a mom/daughter duo who talk about grief.  You can find them on Facebook at Coffee and Grief. Please join their private Facebook page: Coffee and Grief Community. You can also email Anne and Maria at: [email protected] Anne’s memoir, THE FIFTH CHAMBER, a memoir of loss and love, is available wherever you get your books. Once you’ve read THE FIFTH CHAMBER, Anne would be so grateful if you’d take a few minutes to review on Amazon and Goodreads.   We’d love you to like and share the podcast! 

We’re thrilled to bring you our recent Coffee Talk #78 from March 2026. We hope these five phenomenal writers/readers/humans and their stories are just what your heart needs today:Dede Montgomery, Kim Owens, Krista Lee Hanson, Mallory McDuff, and Pallas Hupe´ Cotter.Thank you for letting us be in your ears. Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is created by Anne Gudger and Maria Gibson, a mom/daughter duo who talk about grief.  You can find them on Facebook at Coffee and Grief. Please join their private Facebook page: Coffee and Grief Community. You can also email Anne and Maria at: [email protected] Anne’s memoir, THE FIFTH CHAMBER, a memoir of loss and love, is available wherever you get your books. Once you’ve read THE FIFTH CHAMBER, Anne would be so grateful if you’d share your honest thoughts on Amazon and Goodreads. Thank you for taking a few minutes to review!Enjoy!

We’re thrilled to bring you our recent Coffee Talk #77 from February 2026. We hope this special reading emceed by Jerry Portwood with writers from The Queer Love Project is just what your heart needs today. Please enjoy these five phenomenal writers/readers/humans and their stories: Anthony DiPietro, Jardana Peacock, Jerry Portwood, Michael Horvich, Nikkya Hargrove, and Timothy Hedden.Enjoy!Thank you for letting us be in your ears. Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is created by Anne Gudger and Maria Gibson, a mom/daughter duo who talk about grief.  You can find them on Facebook at Coffee and Grief. Please join their private Facebook page: Coffee and Grief Community. You can also email Anne and Maria at: [email protected] Anne’s memoir, THE FIFTH CHAMBER, a memoir of loss and love, is available wherever you get your books. Once you’ve read THE FIFTH CHAMBER, Anne would be so grateful if you’d share your honest thoughts on Amazon and Goodreads. Thank you for taking a few minutes to review! We’d love you to like and share the podcast! 

We’re thrilled to bring you our recent Coffee Talk #76 from January, our first Coffee Talk of 2026. We hope these five phenomenal writers/readers/humans and their stories are just what your heart needs today. We’re delighted to bring you Andrea Javor, Asha Dore, Nastashia Minto, Monica Welty, and Rebecca Tourino Collinsworth.Enjoy!Thank you for letting us be in your ears. Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is created by Anne Gudger and Maria Gibson, a mom/daughter duo who talk about grief.  You can find them on Facebook at Coffee and Grief. Please join their private Facebook page: Coffee and Grief Community. You can also email Anne and Maria at: [email protected] Anne’s memoir, THE FIFTH CHAMBER, a memoir of loss and love, is available wherever you get your books. Once you’ve read THE FIFTH CHAMBER, Anne would be so grateful if you’d share your honest thoughts on Amazon and Goodreads. Thank you for taking a few minutes to review! We’d love you to like and share the podcast! 

We’re thrilled to bring you our recent Coffee Talk #75 from December, our last Coffee Talk of 2025. We hope these five phenomenal writers/readers/humans and their stories are just what your heart needs today. We’re delighted to bring you Adam Strong, Annie Gudger, Christina Larsen, Melissa Fraterrigo, and Katie Guinn.Enjoy!Thank you for letting us be in your ears. Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is created by Anne Gudger and Maria Gibson, a mom/daughter duo who talk about grief.  You can find them on Facebook at Coffee and Grief. Please join their private Facebook page: Coffee and Grief Community. You can also email Anne and Maria at: [email protected] Anne’s memoir, THE FIFTH CHAMBER, a memoir of loss and love, is available wherever you get your books. Once you’ve read THE FIFTH CHAMBER, Anne would be so grateful if you’d share your honest thoughts on Amazon and Goodreads. Thank you for taking a few minutes to review! We’d love you to like and share the podcast! 

We’re thrilled to bring you our recent Coffee Talk #73 from October 2025. We hope these five phenomenal writers/readers/humans and their stories are just what your heart needs today. We’re delighted to bring you Cait West, Ivy Eisenberg Jane Dorn, Jason Arias, and Pat Jewett.Enjoy!Thank you for letting us be in your ears. Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is created by Anne Gudger and Maria Gibson, a mom/daughter duo who talk about grief.  You can find them on Facebook at Coffee and Grief. Please join their private Facebook page: Coffee and Grief Community. You can also email Anne and Maria at: [email protected] Anne’s memoir, THE FIFTH CHAMBER, a memoir of loss and love, is available wherever you get your books. Once you’ve read THE FIFTH CHAMBER, Anne would be so grateful if you’d share your honest thoughts on Amazon and Goodreads. Thank you for taking a few minutes to review! We’d love you to like and share the podcast! 

Rebe was 19 when her mother died. She didn’t allow herself to feel her grief, following well-meaning advice to put her grief aside. Thirty years later, Rebe went on a quest to know her mother, to grieve her. She traveled to Cuba and learned to grieve from a culture that holds their dead close. She saw it was possible to communicate with the other side, and it changed her relationship to her mother and her grief.  Rebe Huntman is a memoirist, essayist, dancer, teacher, and poet who writes at the intersections of feminism, world religion and spirituality. For over a decade she directed Chicago’s award-winning Danza Viva Center for World Dance, Art & Music and its dance company, One World Dance Theater. Huntman collaborates with native artists in Cuba and South America, has been featured in Latina Magazine, Chicago Magazine, and the Chicago Tribune, and has appeared on Fox and ABC. A Macondo fellow and recipient of an Ohio Individual Excellence award, Huntman received support for her debut memoir, My Mother in Havana: A Memoir of Magic & Miracle (Monkfish Book Publishing Company, 2025), from The Ohio State University, Virginia Center for Creative Arts, Ragdale Foundation, PLAYA Residency, Hambidge Center, and Brush Creek Foundation. She lives in Delaware, Ohio and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Thank you for letting us be in your ears. Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is created by Anne Gudger and Maria Gibson, a mom/daughter duo who talk about grief.  You can find them on Facebook at Coffee and Grief. Please join their private Facebook page: Coffee and Grief Community. You can also email Anne and Maria at: [email protected] Anne’s memoir, THE FIFTH CHAMBER, a memoir of loss and love, is available wherever you get your books. Once you’ve read THE FIFTH CHAMBER, Anne would be so grateful if you’d share your honest thoughts on Amazon and Goodreads. Thank you for taking a few minutes to review! We’d love you to like and share the podcast! 

We’re thrilled to bring you our recent Coffee Talk #73 from October 2025. We hope these five phenomenal writers/readers/humans and their stories are just what your heart needs today. We’re delighted to bring you Asha Dore, Bob Macauley, Brad Snyder, Karen Bonofiglio, and Rebecca Thompson. Enjoy!Thank you for letting us be in your ears. Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is created by Anne Gudger and Maria Gibson, a mom/daughter duo who talk about grief.  You can find them on Facebook at Coffee and Grief. Please join their private Facebook page: Coffee and Grief Community. You can also email Anne and Maria at: [email protected] Anne’s memoir, THE FIFTH CHAMBER, a memoir of loss and love, is available wherever you get your books. Once you’ve read THE FIFTH CHAMBER, Anne would be so grateful if you’d share your honest thoughts on Amazon and Goodreads. Thank you for taking a few minutes to review! We’d love you to like and share the podcast! 

Chelsea shares her triple griefs: the death of her beloved dad, Eddie, her mom’s dementia, and recovering from being hit by a car while she was out for a run. In our conversation you’ll hear Chelsea talk about her love for her dad who was “magic.” She tells us grief taught her how to “pick through the rice and find the beans.” She shares her grief wisdom: “Meet people without judgement. When we share, it gets a little easier, we breathe a little deeper.”Thank you for letting us be in your ears.Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is created by Anne Gudger and Maria Gibson, a mom/daughter duo who talk about grief. You can find them on Facebook at Coffee and Grief. Please join their private Facebook page: Coffee and Grief Community.You can also email Anne and Maria at: [email protected]’s memoir, THE FIFTH CHAMBER, a memoir of loss and love, is available wherever you get your books.Once you’ve read THE FIFTH CHAMBER, Anne would be so grateful if you’d share your honest thoughts on Amazon and Goodreads. Thank you for taking a few minutes to review!We’d love you to like and share the podcast! 

We’re delighted to bring you our recent Coffee Talk #72 from September 2025. We hope these five phenomenal writers/readers/humans and their stories are just what your heart needs today. We’re delighted to bring you Ali Shaw, Christina Rivera, Kate Carroll de Gutes, Jasmine Nothing, and Liz Scott.  Thank you for letting us be in your ears. Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is created by Anne Gudger and Maria Gibson, a mom/daughter duo who talk about grief.  You can find them on Facebook at Coffee and Grief. Please join their private Facebook page: Coffee and Grief Community. You can also email Anne and Maria at: [email protected] Anne’s memoir, THE FIFTH CHAMBER, a memoir of loss and love, is available wherever you get your books. Once you’ve read THE FIFTH CHAMBER, Anne would be so grateful if you’d share your honest thoughts on Amazon and Goodreads. Thank you for taking a few minutes to review! We’d love you to like and share the podcast! Enjoy!

Doug shares openly about many layers of grief from the death of his mom to being estranged from his kids. He talks about his mom who would say Kindness is the best thing. He says that thinking the best of people is his strength and can also be his weakness. He shares how in his grief he had to protect himself which doesn’t come naturally so he leaned into other people’s words. We love that he said grief is for everybody. Everybody experiences it. “All I can do is allow myself to experience grief and have empathy for others grieving.”  Doug Chase is a writer and retired bookseller living in Oregon with his spouse and two ridiculous cats. His writing has appeared in City of Weird: Thirty Otherworldly Portland Tales, The Untold Gaze, and Deep Overstock Issue 7: Horror, as well as a few places online. He has been a regular reader at the Burnt Tongue reading series and a few other events in Portland, and hosts a regular reading series with his own writing group and special guests.  Thank you for letting us be in your ears. Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is created by Anne Gudger and Maria Gibson, a mom/daughter duo who talk about grief.  You can find them on Facebook at Coffee and Grief. Please join their private Facebook page: Coffee and Grief Community. You can also email Anne and Maria at: [email protected] Anne’s memoir, THE FIFTH CHAMBER, a memoir of loss and love, is available wherever you get your books. Once you’ve read THE FIFTH CHAMBER, Anne would be so grateful if you’d share your honest thoughts on Amazon and Goodreads. Thank you for taking a few minutes to review! We’d love you to like and share the podcast! 

In this episode, Melanie Brooks openly shares the experience of her father dying from AIDS and how, as a family, they didn’t talk about him being sick. It took her 20 years to look at the silence and grief.  Her dad was infected with AIDS from a blood transfusion during surgery. Her dad was a surgeon. He thought he’d die in months so he decided to keep his health a secret to avoid the stigmas around AIDS. He and their family lived with the silence for ten years.  Melanie shares some beautiful insights around grief. She says, “I couldn’t move forward without looking back.” She believed she was preparing herself for years, but nothing could prepare her for the loss.Melanie Brooks is the author of the memoir A Hard Silence: One daughter remaps family, grief, and faith when HIV/AIDS changes it all (Vine Leaves Press, 2023) and Writing Hard Stories: Celebrated Memoirists Who Shaped Art from Trauma (Beacon Press, 2017) She teaches creative nonfiction in the M.F.A. program at Bay Path University and in the M.F.A. program at Western Connecticut State University and professional writing at Northeastern University. She holds an M.F.A. in Creative Nonfiction from the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast writing program and a Certificate in Narrative Medicine from Columbia University. She has had numerous interviews and essays on topics ranging from loss and grief to parenting and aging published in The Boston Globe, The Toronto Globe and Mail, HuffPost, Yankee Magazine, Psychology Today, The Washington Post, Ms. Magazine, Creative Nonfiction, and other notable publications. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband, two children (when they are home from university), and chocolate Lab. Thank you for letting us be in your ears. Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is created by Anne Gudger and Maria Gibson, a mom/daughter duo who talk about grief.  You can find them on Facebook at Coffee and Grief. Please join their private Facebook page: Coffee and Grief Community. You can also email Anne and Maria at: [email protected] Anne’s memoir, THE FIFTH CHAMBER, a memoir of loss and love, is available wherever you get your books. Once you’ve read THE FIFTH CHAMBER, Anne would be so grateful if you’d share your honest thoughts on Amazon and Goodreads. Thank you for taking a few minutes to review! We’d love you to like and share the podcast! 

We’re delighted to bring you our recent Coffee Talk #71 from July 2025. We hope these five phenomenal writers/readers/humans and their stories are just what your heart needs today. We’re delighted to bring you Clare Simons, Debby Dodds, Laura Cathcart Robbins, Rebe Huntman, and Zane Thomas. Thank you for letting us be in your ears. Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is created by Anne Gudger and Maria Gibson, a mom/daughter duo who talk about grief.  You can find them on Facebook at Coffee and Grief. Please join their private Facebook page: Coffee and Grief Community. You can also email Anne and Maria at: [email protected] Anne’s memoir, THE FIFTH CHAMBER, a memoir of loss and love, is available wherever you get your books. Once you’ve read THE FIFTH CHAMBER, Anne would be so grateful if you’d share your honest thoughts on Amazon and Goodreads. Thank you for taking a few minutes to review! We’d love you to like and share the podcast! Enjoy!

We’re delighted to bring you our recent Coffee Talk #70 from June 2025. We hope these five phenomenal writers/readers/humans and their stories are just what your heart needs today. We bring you: Lisa Cowan, Mary Klinger, Nancy Townsley, Shavaun Scott, and  Suzy Vitello. Enjoy!Thank you for letting us be in your ears.Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is created by Anne Gudger and Maria Gibson, a mom/daughter duo who talk about grief.  You can find them on Facebook at Coffee and Grief. Please join their private Facebook page: Coffee and Grief Community. You can also email Anne and Maria at: [email protected] Anne’s memoir, THE FIFTH CHAMBER, a memoir of loss and love, is available wherever you get your books. Once you’ve read THE FIFTH CHAMBER, Anne would be so grateful if you’d share your honest thoughts on Amazon and Goodreads. Thank you for taking a few minutes to review! We’d love you to like and share the podcast! 

In this episode Phillipa Leseberg reads from her new memoir: HIS NAME IS ERIC: a book that records her love story with her beloved husband Eric who died from cancer. It’s a love story, a story of resilience and advocacy, and so much more.  Phillipa shares how through Eric’s illness and death, her concept of grief expanded. Grief started when Eric’s health first declined. Eric grieved his loss of work. Phillipa grieved the loss of her husband’s mobility. They grieved through all the treatments. Together they experienced intense grief when they realized treatments weren’t working. Philllipa grieves Eric, his death, and the life they had.  Phillipa Leseberg is a Kiwi-American adventurer, dolphin & whale swimmer, advocate for juicing and organic food, and debut author. Her memoir, HIS NAME IS ERIC, chronicles the journey of soulmates Phillipa and Eric, facing the unthinkable: a stage-four cancer diagnosis that upends their lives. His Name is Eric is a tribute to resilience, courage, and hope when conventional medicine fails to provide the desired results. It offers an authentic love story while exploring alternative healing paths for cancer. Based in Seattle, she lives a life filled with travel, adventure, writing and frequently visits her daughter and beloved pup in Hawai’i. You can find her at: https://www.facebook.com/phillipa.leseberg  https://www.instagram.com/phillipaleseberg/https://phillipaleseberg.com/ Thank you for letting us be in your ears. Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is created by Anne Gudger and Maria Gibson, a mom/daughter duo who talk about grief.  You can find them on Facebook at Coffee and Grief. Please join their private Facebook page: Coffee and Grief Community. You can also email Anne and Maria at: [email protected] Anne’s memoir, THE FIFTH CHAMBER, a memoir of loss and love, is available wherever you get your books. Once you’ve read THE FIFTH CHAMBER, Anne would be so grateful if you’d share your honest thoughts on Amazon and Goodreads. Thank you for taking a few minutes to review! We’d love you to like and share the podcast!

Becky Ellis shares about her dad’s experience as a Timberwolf in World War II and how that impacted him, then later her and the rest of their family. With her father sharing his story, she gained a deep understanding of who her father was. She was able to see him separate from her needs and desires. Becky says this uncovering was the “greatest moment of joy, the deepest moment of grief.” At 50, she finally got to see her dad for who he was, and she had compassion for him and what he endured.  She’s learned the value of sharing stories over hiding secrets, and talks about how her relationships are different with her daughters than hers was with her dad. Becky Ellis is a Timberwolf Pup. The daughter of a highly decorated World War II combat sergeant, she is a veteran of a war fought at home. She earned a BA in English Literature at UC Berkeley and has over twenty years of experience in the publishing industry. She teaches writing in Portland, Oregon, where she lives, plays, and has raised three daughters. Little Avalanches is her debut memoir. It was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award 2025.  https://beckyellis.nethttps://instagram.com/beckyellisauthorLittle Avalanches by Becky Ellis Thank you for letting us be in your ears. Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is created by Anne Gudger and Maria Gibson, a mom/daughter duo who talk about grief.  You can find them on Facebook at Coffee and Grief. Please join their private Facebook page: Coffee and Grief Community. You can also email Anne and Maria at: [email protected] Anne’s memoir, THE FIFTH CHAMBER, a memoir of loss and love, is available wherever you get your books. Once you’ve read THE FIFTH CHAMBER, Anne would be so grateful if you’d share your honest thoughts on Amazon and Goodreads. Thank you for taking a few minutes to review! We’d love you to like and share the podcast!

We’re delighted to bring you our recent Coffee Talk #69 from May 2025. This is a special Coffee Talk, honoring Monica Welty’s son, Harvey who died as a newborn. We hope these five phenomenal writers/readers/humans and their stories are just what your heart needs today. We bring you Becca Lynne, Jennifer Lynn, Katie Dominguez, Rebecca Mendez, and Virag Tunya. Enjoy! Thank you for letting us be in your ears. Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is created by Anne Gudger and Maria Gibson, a mom/daughter duo who talk about grief.  You can find them on Facebook at Coffee and Grief. Please join their private Facebook page: Coffee and Grief Community. You can also email Anne and Maria at: [email protected] Anne’s memoir, THE FIFTH CHAMBER, a memoir of loss and love, is available wherever you get your books. Once you’ve read THE FIFTH CHAMBER, Anne would be so grateful if you’d share your honest thoughts on Amazon and Goodreads. Thank you for taking a few minutes to review! We’d love you to like and share the podcast! 

Season Two Episode Twenty-onePlay On With Kevin O’Connor In this open-hearted conversation Kevin O’Connor tells us how he was born into grief. He came home as a newborn to an apartment above a funeral home. Living with death was always part of his life as his dad and uncle were undertakers and owners of a funeral home. He shares how his family supported others in grief. Sometimes he’d be a pallbearer for someone who didn’t have family. Sometimes his friends would be pallbearers too. He watched his dad treat everyone with respect. We especially love when he says, “I want people to say what a great last day I had.” And “witnessing and participating in death has helped me approach life in a much kinder way. I want to be remembered for what I was able to do for people.”  Kevin O’Connor is the author of Two Floors Above Grief. His career spans over fifty years as a writer, teacher, principal, curriculum designer, and university instructor. He authors content and provides training in mathematics instruction, principal leadership, support for substitute teachers, LGBTQ advocacy, sexual health/Family Life, self-publishing, and marketing. He sings and performs in theaters.  He is active with SMART Ride, a bicycling group that raises funds for HIV awareness, treatment, and education. He resides in Ft. Lauderdale with his husband, Leon. Their family includes five sons and seven granddaughters. You can more Kevin here: https://www.podcastconnections.co/LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/noemiberes/Facebook: www.facebook.com/noemi.beresEmail: [email protected]: https://www.instagram.com/noemi_beres_Thank you for letting us be in your ears. Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is created by Anne Gudger and Maria Gibson, a mom/daughter duo who talk about grief.  You can find them on Facebook at Coffee and Grief. Please join their private Facebook page: Coffee and Grief Community. You can also email Anne and Maria at: [email protected] Anne’s memoir, THE FIFTH CHAMBER, a memoir of loss and love, is available wherever you get your books. Once you’ve read THE FIFTH CHAMBER, Anne would be so grateful if you’d share your honest thoughts on Amazon and Goodreads. Thank you for taking a few minutes to review! We’d love you to like and share the podcast! 

We’re delighted to bring you our recent Coffee Talk #68 from April 2025. We hope these five phenomenal writers/readers/humans and their stories are just what your heart needs today. We bring you Annie Carl, Jen Violi, Nikki Darling, Nynke Salverda Passi, and Mary Mandeville. Enjoy!Thank you for letting us be in your ears.Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is created by Anne Gudger and Maria Gibson, a mom/daughter duo who talk about grief.  You can find them on Facebook at Coffee and Grief. Please join their private Facebook page: Coffee and Grief Community. You can also email Anne and Maria at: [email protected] Anne’s memoir, THE FIFTH CHAMBER, a memoir of loss and love, is available wherever you get your books. Once you’ve read THE FIFTH CHAMBER, Anne would be so grateful if you’d share your honest thoughts on Amazon and Goodreads. Thank you for taking a few minutes to review! We’d love you to like and share the podcast! 

Grab your coffee and come listen to this tender conversation with Shara Ruffin who talks about becoming comfortable with grief being part of life. She tells us some of the rituals she’s made part of her life since her daughter died and her mom-in-law too. She shares how important ritual is to stay connected to her beloveds. As a griever, as a human, she holds the fragility of life, embraces that grief is a process you engage with differently over time, and knows we all will eventually take our last breath. Shara says, “The only thing that’s left is the memory of you.”   Shara is an independently licensed clinical social worker and former psychotherapist from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She holds a Bachelor's degree in social work from Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania and a Master's degree in social work from Howard University School of Social Work. Shara has specializations in grief, personality disorders, family trauma, compassion fatigue, military counseling, mindfulness meditation, ADHD, and anxiety. Shara is a Board Certified Tele-mental Health Provider. She’s the author of two journals: 90 Day of Inspiration: Study Companion for Social Workers Taking Their Licensing Exam and 90 Day Prayer Journal: A Journal for Social Workers.   Thank you for letting us be in your ears. Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is created by Anne Gudger and Maria Gibson, a mom/daughter duo who talk about grief.  You can find them on Facebook at Coffee and Grief. Please join their private Facebook page: Coffee and Grief Community. You can also email Anne and Maria at: [email protected] Anne’s memoir, THE FIFTH CHAMBER, a memoir of loss and love, is available wherever you get your books. Once you’ve read THE FIFTH CHAMBER, Anne would be so grateful if you’d share your honest thoughts on Amazon and Goodreads. Thank you for taking a few minutes to review! We’d love you to like and share the podcast! 

We’re delighted to bring you Coffee Talk #44 from March 2023. We hope these five phenomenal writers/readers/humans and their stories are just what your heart needs today. We bring you Carmel Breathnach, Jason Arias, Jessica Rich, Jill Deasy, and Rebecca Daniels. Enjoy!  Thank you for letting us be in your ears. Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is created by Anne Gudger and Maria Gibson, a mom/daughter duo who talk about grief.  You can find them on Facebook at Coffee and Grief. Please join their private Facebook page: Coffee and Grief Community. You can also email Anne and Maria at: [email protected] Anne’s memoir, THE FIFTH CHAMBER, a memoir of loss and love, is available wherever you get your books. Once you’ve read THE FIFTH CHAMBER, Anne would be so grateful if you’d share your honest thoughts on Amazon and Goodreads. Thank you for taking a few minutes to review! We’d love you to like and share the podcast! 

Pamela reads her essay that she says is partially the eulogy she should have written/shared about her father and didn’t. She braids some sweet childhood memories with her last memories of her dad. In moving through her grief, she tells us: “The rough emotions have taken a back seat to the good ones.” And her message to her younger self is to “accept each step of it. You don’t know the steps. And however you’re feeling, it’s all okay.” Pamela Gwyn Kripke is a journalist and author whose writing has appeared in publications including The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Chicago Sun-Times, The Dallas Morning News, The Huffington Post, Slate and Salon. Her novel, At the Seams, received the Arch Street Press First Chapter Award, and her new short story collection, And Then You Apply Ice, was a Finalist in the 2024 American Fiction Awards. Pamela’s fiction and creative nonfiction have been published in numerous literary magazines. Born in Manhattan, she got married in New York, had baby girls in Boston, was divorced in Texas and currently lives outside Philadelphia. She self-published a memoir called Girl Without a Zipcode.https://pamelagwynkripke.com/ Thank you for letting us be in your ears. Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is created by Anne Gudger and Maria Gibson, a mom/daughter duo who talk about grief.  You can find them on Facebook at Coffee and Grief. Please join their private Facebook page: Coffee and Grief Community. You can also email Anne and Maria at: [email protected] Anne’s memoir, THE FIFTH CHAMBER, a memoir of loss and love, is available wherever you get your books. Once you’ve read THE FIFTH CHAMBER, Anne would be so grateful if you’d share your honest thoughts on Amazon and Goodreads. Thank you for taking a few minutes to review! We’d love you to like and share the podcast! 

We’re delighted to bring you Coffee Talk #43 from February 2023. We hope these four phenomenal writers/readers/humans and their stories are just what your heart needs today. We bring you Amy Kortuem, Annie Gudger, Gayle Brandeis, and  MJ Atamian. Enjoy! Thank you for letting us be in your ears. Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is created by Anne Gudger and Maria Gibson, a mom/daughter duo who talk about grief.  You can find them on Facebook at Coffee and Grief. Please join their private Facebook page: Coffee and Grief Community. You can also email Anne and Maria at: [email protected] Anne’s memoir, THE FIFTH CHAMBER, a memoir of loss and love, is available wherever you get your books. Once you’ve read THE FIFTH CHAMBER, Anne would be so grateful if you’d share your honest thoughts on Amazon and Goodreads. Thank you for taking a few minutes to review! We’d love you to like and share the podcast! 

Casey reads from her gorgeous new memoir: The Full Catastrophe: All I Ever Wanted, Everything I Feared. She talks about her many griefs that could have undone her, and how, while we can never be prepared for major loss, her early experiences with loss helped carry her through later ones. She shares how she’s grown through grief. Her compassion for herself and others shines through our entire conversation.   Casey Mulligan Walsh writes about life at the intersection of grief and joy, embracing uncertainty, and the nature of true belonging. Her memoir, The Full Catastrophe: All I Ever Wanted, Everything I Feared, was published with Motina Books, February 2025. She has written for The New York Times, HuffPost, Next Avenue, Modern Loss, Hippocampus, Barren, and numerous other literary magazines. Casey’s essay, “Still,” published in Split Lip, was nominated for Best of the Net. She is a founding editor of In a Flash literary magazine. She also serves as an ambassador for the Family Heart Foundation, an organization dedicated to raising awareness of the genetic lipid disorder that has affected her family across generations.  Casey lives in upstate New York with her husband, Kevin, a chatty orange tabby, and too many books to count. Learn more at www.caseymulliganwalsh.com. Thank you for letting us be in your ears. Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is created by Anne Gudger and Maria Gibson, a mom/daughter duo who talk about grief.  You can find them on Facebook at Coffee and Grief. Please join their private Facebook page: Coffee and Grief Community. You can also email Maria and Anne at: [email protected] Anne’s memoir, THE FIFTH CHAMBER, a memoir of loss and love, is available wherever you get your books. Once you’ve read THE FIFTH CHAMBER, Anne would be so grateful if you’d share your honest thoughts on Amazon and Goodreads. Thank you for taking a few minutes to review! We’d love you to like and share the podcast! 

We’re delighted to bring you Coffee Talk #46 from May 2023. It’s a special reading, honoring Harvey, Monica’s infant son who died days after he was born. We’re honored to support Monica in these yearly readings, to keep talking about Harvey who has touched so many lives. We hope these five phenomenal writers/readers/humans and their stories are just what your heart needs today. We bring you:  Anat LeBlanc, Anne Richardson, Blix Aviv, Julie Serafina, andTracy Rose Stamper. If you’d like to donate to the scholarship fund in Harvey’s honor that Monica mentions, here’s the link: https://www.givecampus.com/campaigns/7956/donations/new?udac=EONLINEFORM Thank you for letting us be in your ears. Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is a created by Anne Gudger and Maria Gibson, a mom/daughter duo who talk about grief.  You can find them on Facebook at Coffee and Grief. Please join their private Facebook page: Coffee and Grief Community. You can also email Anne and Maria at: [email protected] Anne’s memoir, THE FIFTH CHAMBER, a memoir of loss and love, is available wherever you get your books. Once you’ve read THE FIFTH CHAMBER, Anne would be so grateful if you’d share your honest thoughts on Amazon and Goodreads. Thank you for taking a few minutes to review! We’d love you to like and share the podcast! 

Season Two Episode Thirteen Pedaling Hard with Ronit Plank Ronit Plank reads from her fabulous memoir: WHEN SHE COMES BACK and talks about her grief of losing her mom, her family, and her sense of self. She shares gems about writing memoir along with talking about how all of her family relationships have evolved, how healing has come through writing and having honest conversations. She reminds us all that “your story matters.”  Ronit is a writer, teacher, and editor who hosts the podcast Let’s Talk Memoir. Her work has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer’s Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK, about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories. She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, speaks on and teaches memoir writing, and is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review. You can find out more at ronitplank.comHer Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank?utm_source=profile-pageHer Instagram: @RonitPlank Thank you for letting us be in your ears. Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is a created by Anne Gudger and Maria Gibson, a mom/daughter duo who talk about grief.  You can find them on Facebook at Coffee and Grief. Please join their private Facebook page: Coffee and Grief Community. You can also email Anne and Maria at: [email protected] Anne’s memoir, THE FIFTH CHAMBER, a memoir of loss and love, is available wherever you get your books. Once you’ve read THE FIFTH CHAMBER, Anne would be so grateful if you’d share your honest thoughts on Amazon and Goodreads. Thank you for taking a few minutes to review! We’d love you to like and share the podcast! 

We’re delighted to bring you Coffee Talk #67 from March 2025. We hope these four phenomenal writers/readers/humans and their stories are just what your heart needs today. If you missed the live Coffee Talk, if you’d like to hear their voices again, we bring you Christie Tate, Gina Moffa, Jing Jing Tsong, Natalie Hirt and Tanya Friedman. Enjoy!Thank you for letting us be in your ears. Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is a created by Anne Gudger and Maria Gibson, a mom/daughter duo who talk about grief.  You can find them on Facebook at Coffee and Grief. Please join their private Facebook page: Coffee and Grief Community. You can also email Anne and Maria at: [email protected] Anne’s memoir, THE FIFTH CHAMBER, a memoir of loss and love, is available wherever you get your books. Once you’ve read THE FIFTH CHAMBER, Anne would be so grateful if you’d share your honest thoughts on Amazon and Goodreads. Thank you for taking a few minutes to review! We’d love you to like and share the podcast! 

In this episode Jenny Leon talks about being a cancer survivor while two of her children were very young. She was diagnosed with breast cancer when he was 33 weeks pregnant with her daughter, and had chemo until her daughter was nine months old. She’s since gone on to support others in their grief around cancer. She gifts others with her time, her understanding, her kindness.  Jenny talks about the grief of time lost, the grief of what she hoped for and didn’t have. She tells us, “Easy things are hard and hard things are easy.” Jenny Leon is a breast cancer survivor, veteran lawyer, freelance writer and mother of 3 under 7, living in Montclair, New Jersey. Her writing has been featured in the Globe and Mail, HuffPost Canada, the Buffalo News, Motherwell, Kveller and HerStry amongst others. Her essay "Am I Still Your Mother?" was nominated by HerStry for the 2024 Pushcart Prize. She has appeared on various podcasts including Dear Nina: Conversations about Friendship and Life's Accessories with Rachel Levy Lesser. Her memoir in progress is about the experience of being diagnosed with breast cancer during pregnancy and how this led her to seize onto life. Thank you for letting us be in your ears. Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is a created by Anne Gudger and Maria Gibson, a mom/daughter duo who talk about grief.  You can find them on Facebook at Coffee and Grief. Please join their private Facebook page: Coffee and Grief Community. You can also email Anne and Maria at: [email protected] Anne’s memoir, THE FIFTH CHAMBER, a memoir of loss and love, is available wherever you get your books. Once you’ve read THE FIFTH CHAMBER, Anne would be so grateful if you’d share your honest thoughts on Amazon and Goodreads. Thank you for taking a few minutes to review! We’d love you to like and share the podcast!

We’re delighted to bring you Coffee Talk #63 from November 2024. We hope these four phenomenal writers/readers/humans and their stories are just what your heart needs today. If you missed the live Coffee Talk, if you’d like to hear their voices again, we bring you Jessica Fein, Lanette Smith, Becky Ellis, and Laurie Easter. Enjoy!Thank you for letting us be in your ears. Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is a created by Anne Gudger and Maria Gibson, a mom/daughter duo who talk about grief.  You can find them on Facebook at Coffee and Grief. Please join their private Facebook page: Coffee and Grief Community. You can also email Anne and Maria at: [email protected] Anne’s memoir, THE FIFTH CHAMBER, a memoir of loss and love, is available wherever you get your books. Once you’ve read THE FIFTH CHAMBER, Anne would be so grateful if you’d share your honest thoughts on Amazon and Goodreads. Thank you for taking a few minutes to review! We’d love you to like and share the podcast! 

 Season Two Episode Nine Loving the Dying with Jennifer Bedford Jennifer reads a beautiful piece about her dog’s death, her mom’s death,  and a paramedic who showed up at the scene of the car accident where her beloved dog, Leo, died a week after her mom died. She shares her experiences of being with the dying and how she’s learned to embrace death, to see the beauty. She also gives practical tips to help survivors, to take much of the guessing out of what to do after someone dies, including a letter she’s written to her kids: “You’re going to be okay. I’m so sorry Mama’s gone. . . .” Jennifer Bedford lives in South Pasadena California; she began writing as a young girl with multiple pen-pals, an unlimited supply of stamps, and far too many felt-markers to count. She kept the pen-pal racquet going for decades until her family onboarded that first Macintosh computer that looked like a beige UPS box with a grip handle on its backside. What a thrill it was to discover the font dropdown menu and continue writing to, with, and about her friends and family with joyous abandon. Jennifer is a student and practitioner of the Brave Writing style and is currently belaboring a memoir under the tutelage of memoirist Erika Schickel.  Thank you for letting us be in your ears. Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is created by Anne Gudger and Maria Gibson, a mom/daughter duo who talk about grief.  You can find them on Facebook at Coffee and Grief. Please join their private Facebook page: Coffee and Grief Community. You can also email Anne and Maria at: [email protected] Anne’s memoir, THE FIFTH CHAMBER, a memoir of loss and love, is available wherever you get your books. Once you’ve read THE FIFTH CHAMBER, Anne would be so grateful if you’d share your honest thoughts on Amazon and Goodreads. Thank you for taking a few minutes to review! We’d love you to like and share the podcast! 

We’re delighted to bring you Coffee Talk #60 from July 2024. July’s reading highlighted five contributors to the beautiful collection DARING TO BREATHE:Stories of Living with the Foreverness of Grief, edited by Armen Bacon and Nancy Miller. We hope these five phenomenal writers/readers/humans and their stories are just what your heart needs today. If you missed the live Coffee Talk, if you’d like to hear their voices again, we bring you Alexis Beyers, Michael Roberts, Randye Kaye, Sarah Tavis, and Shareen Grogan. With Armen Bacon and Nancy Miller hosting. Enjoy!Here's a link to DARING TO BREATHE: Stories of Living with the Foreverness of Grief. Please support the book and leave a review on Amazon and Goodreads once you've read this collection.   https://www.amazon.com.mx/Daring-Breathe-Stories-Foreverness-English-ebook/dp/B0CTW1HMGKThank you for letting us be in your ears. Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is created by Anne Gudger and Maria Gibson, a mom/daughter duo who talk about grief.  You can find them on Facebook at Coffee and Grief. Please join their private Facebook page: Coffee and Grief Community. You can also email Anne and Maria at: [email protected] Anne’s memoir, THE FIFTH CHAMBER, a memoir of loss and love, is available wherever you get your books. Once you’ve read THE FIFTH CHAMBER, Anne would be so grateful if you’d share your honest thoughts on Amazon and Goodreads. Thank you for taking a few minutes to review! We’d love you to like and share the podcast! 

Eileen Vorbach Collins shares about suicide loss, how a close friendship buoyed her during her hardest grief time, her up-close experience with hospice, and her strong feelings about long term grief being labeled a disorder. She tells us: “If we’re normalizing grief, we can’t call it a disorder.” Brava, Eileen. Brava. Eileen Vorbach Collins writes true stories she wishes were fiction and fairy tales she wishes were true. She's grateful that her work has been published in many wonderful places. She is the author of the award-winning essay collection, Love in the Archives, a Patchwork of True Stories About Suicide Loss.  https://www.loveinthearchives.com Thank you for letting us be in your ears. Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is created by Anne Gudger and Maria Gibson, a mom/daughter duo who talk about grief.  You can find them on Facebook at Coffee and Grief. Please join their private Facebook page: Coffee and Grief Community. You can also email Anne and Maria at: [email protected] Anne’s memoir, THE FIFTH CHAMBER, a memoir of loss and love, is available wherever you get your books. Once you’ve read THE FIFTH CHAMBER, Anne would be so grateful if you’d share your honest thoughts on Amazon and Goodreads. Thank you for taking a few minutes to review! We’d love you to like and share the podcast! 

We’re delighted to bring you Coffee Talk #61 from September 2024. We hope these five phenomenal writers/readers/humans and their stories are just what your heart needs today. If you missed the live Coffee Talk, if you’d like to hear their voices again, we bring you Kelly James, Casey Mulligan Walsh, Jessica Thomas, Pamela Kripke, and Lita Kurth. Enjoy!Thank you for letting us be in your ears. Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is a created by Anne Gudger and Maria Gibson, a mom/daughter duo who talk about grief.  You can find them on Facebook at Coffee and Grief. Please join their private Facebook page: Coffee and Grief Community. You can also email Anne and Maria at: [email protected] Anne’s memoir, THE FIFTH CHAMBER, a memoir of loss and love, is available wherever you get your books. Please review THE FIFTH CHAMBER on Amazon and Goodreads. No matter where you bought your copy, you can review it on those sites. We so appreciate you taking the time.   We’d love you to like and share the podcast! 

Debra Gwartney talks about her many layered griefs: the fire that ravaged her home on the McKenzie River, the death of her beloved husband Barry Lopez, the death of her parents and more. Barry died during covid, after their home and forest were destroyed in the fire, and she couldn’t get him home, to let him die where he’d lived for 50 years, where he wrote his cannon of incredible work. She talks about how loved ones rallied and brought the McKenzie River to her husband when they couldn’t get Barry to the river.  Debra Gwartney is the author of two book-length memoirs, Live Through This, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and I Am a Stranger Here Myself, winner of the RiverTeeth Nonfiction Prize as well as the Willa Award for Nonfiction. Debra has published in such journals as Granta, The Sun, Tin House, American Scholar, The Normal School, Creative Nonfiction, the NYT Modern Love column, and others. She’s the 2018 winner of the Real Simple essay contest. Her work was recognized with Pushcart prizes in 2021 and 2022, and her essays were selected for Best American Essays in 2022 and 2023. She is recently retired from the Pacific University MFA faculty, and also taught at Portland State University, University of Oregon, and for many national and international writing conferences. Debra is a contributing editor for Poets & Writers, and is co-editor, with her late husband Barry Lopez, of Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape. She lives in Western Oregon. You can find Debra on her author Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/dgwartney Here’s a link to a stunning essay she mentions that was published in The Sun: https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/23658-siri-tells-a-joke Thank you for letting us be in your ears. Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is created by Anne Gudger and Maria Gibson, a mom/daughter duo who talk about grief.  You can find them on Facebook at Coffee and Grief. Please join their private Facebook page: Coffee and Grief Community. You can also email Anne and Maria at: [email protected] Anne’s memoir, THE FIFTH CHAMBER, a memoir of loss and love, is available wherever you get your books. 

We’re delighted to bring you Coffee Talk #66 from February 2025. We hope these five phenomenal writers/readers/humans and their stories are just what your heart needs today. If you missed the live Coffee Talk, if you’d like to hear their voices again, we bring you Abby Maslin, Chelsea Pegues, Randye Sundel, Lisa Keefauver, and Doug Chase,Thank you for letting us be in your ears.Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is a created by Anne Gudger and Maria Gibson, a mom/daughter duo who talk about grief.  You can find them on Facebook at Coffee and Grief. Please join their private Facebook page: Coffee and Grief Community. You can also email Anne and Maria at: [email protected] Anne’s memoir, THE FIFTH CHAMBER, a memoir of loss and love, is available wherever you get your books. Please review THE FIFTH CHAMBER on Amazon and Goodreads. No matter where you bought your copy, you can review it on those sites. We so appreciate you taking the time.   We’d love you to like and share the podcast! 

Sarah Gormley talks about how she grieved the death of her parents, how she found joy and gratitude too. She calls herself a joy broker. She describes grief as “this slippery thing.” This conversation was recorded before her fabulous memoir, THE ORDER OF THINGS: a Memoir about Chasing Joy, was published. It’s now out in the world and you can buy it wherever you buy your books.  Sarah Gormley is the author of THE ORDER OF THINGS: a Memoir about Chasing Joy, and an art gallery-owner living in Columbus, Ohio. Opened in 2019, Sarah Gormley Gallery represents more than thirty contemporary artists and operates from the belief that original art can be a source of joy for everyone. Gormley's undergraduate degree from DePauw University reinforced her early love for literature and writing. She also holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. In her corporate career, Gormley directed marketing efforts for global brands, including IMAX, Martha Stewart, Girl Scouts of the USA, and Adobe. You can find more about Sarah and her memoir here: https://www.sarahgormley.com/ Thank you for letting us be in your ears. Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is created by Anne Gudger and Maria Gibson, a mom/daughter duo who talk about grief.  You can find them on Facebook at Coffee and Grief. Please join their private Facebook page: Coffee and Grief Community. You can also email Anne and Maria at: [email protected] Anne’s memoir, THE FIFTH CHAMBER, a memoir of loss and love, is available wherever you get your books. Please review THE FIFTH CHAMBER on Amazon and Goodreads. No matter where you bought your copy, you can review it on those sites. We so appreciate you taking the time.   We’d love you to like and share the podcast! 

We’re delighted to bring you Coffee Talk #62 from October 2024. We hope these five phenomenal writers/readers/humans and their stories are just what your heart needs today. If you missed the live Coffee Talk, if you’d like to hear their voices again, we bring you Terah Van Dusen, Jewelie Randall, Phillipa Leseberg, Natalie Serianni, and Jennifer Bedford. Thank you for letting us be in your ears.   Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is a created by Anne Gudger and Maria Gibson, a mom/daughter duo who talk about grief.    You can find them on Facebook at Coffee and Grief. Please join their private Facebook page: Coffee and Grief Community.   You can also email Anne and Maria at: [email protected]   Anne’s memoir, THE FIFTH CHAMBER, a memoir of loss and love, is available wherever you get your books.   Please review THE FIFTH CHAMBER on Amazon and Goodreads. No matter where you bought your copy, you can review it on those sites. We so appreciate you taking the time.     We’d love you to like and share the podcast! 

Thank you for letting us be in your ears. We’re delighted to bring you Coffee Talk #65, our first Coffee Talk this year. We hope these five phenomenal writers/readers/humans and their stories are just what your heart needs today. If you missed the live Coffee Talk, if you’d like to hear their voices again, we bring you Sarah Gormley, Kelly Jeske, Domi Shoemaker, Meg Weber, and Mindy Nettifee.   Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is a created by Anne Gudger and Maria Gibson, a mom/daughter duo who talk about grief.    You can find them on Facebook at Coffee and Grief. Please join their private Facebook page: Coffee and Grief Community.   Their next 30day writing group, Write Your Grief Out, is returning in November. Love to have you in our next writing group!    You can also email Anne and Maria at: [email protected]   Anne’s memoir, THE FIFTH CHAMBER, a memoir of loss and love, is available wherever you get your books.   Please review THE FIFTH CHAMBER on Amazon and Goodreads. No matter where you bought your copy, you can review it on those sites. We so appreciate you taking the time.     We’d love you to like and share the podcast! 

We’re delighted to highlight Coffee Talk #55 from last February. We hope these fivevphenomenal writers/readers/humans and their stories are just what your heart needs today. If you missed the live Coffee Talk, if you’d like to hear their voices again, we bring you Anne Richardson, Beth Bornstein Dunnington, Blair Hurley, J’aime Morrison, and Mary Mandeville. Thank you for letting us be in your ears. Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is a created by Anne Gudger and Maria Gibson, a mom/daughter duo who talk about grief. You can find them on Facebook at Coffee and Grief. Please join their private Facebook page: Coffee and Grief Community. Their next 30day writing group, Write Your Grief Out, is returning in October. Love to have you in our next writing group! You can also email Anne and Maria at: [email protected] Anne’s memoir, THE FIFTH CHAMBER, a memoir of loss and love, is available wherever you get your books. Please review THE FIFTH CHAMBER on Amazon and Goodreads. No matter where you bought your copy, you can review it on those sites. We so appreciate you taking the time. We’d love you to like and share the podcast!

We love sharing this Coffee Talk from December 2023. We hope you enjoy the heart-wide stories from these phenomenal humans: Alexis Chen Johnson, Amy Gamble, Asha Dore, Danielle Marie Walker, and J’aime Morrison.   If you missed it or want to relisten, here it is. The readers all brought the best heart medicine.   Thank you for letting us be in your ears.   Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is a created by Anne Gudger and Maria Gibson, a mom/daughter duo who talk about grief.   You can find them on Facebook at Coffee and Grief. Please join their private Facebook page: Coffee and Grief Community.   Their next 30day writing group, Write Your Grief Out, is coming in October! It’s a beautiful way to have a new experience with your grief and to be in community with like-hearted humans.   You can email Anne and Maria at: [email protected]   Anne’s memoir, THE FIFTH CHAMBER, a memoir of loss and love, is available wherever you get your books.   Please review THE FIFTH CHAMBER on Amazon and Goodreads. No matter where you bought your copy, you can review it on those sites. We so appreciate you taking the time to review Anne’s memoir.    We’d love you to like and share the podcast!

Ashmeeta openly shares about being widowed and having her mom, whom she was close with, die. She talks about supporting her kids through their grief, how she both gave them space to grieve as well as keeping eyes on them, describing herself as an Eagle Mama. The grief support group Ashmeeta mentions is Grief Share which can be found all over. https://www.griefshare.org/ Ashmeeta Rama Madhav is an educator, resilience and grief support advocate/expert, entrepreneur, author, and lifelong learner. She has been intimately acquainted with grief since her early twenties, having experienced miscarriage, rejection, and the loss of her parents and husband, which exposed her to a range of profound emotions. She is the founder of Growth StoryHub; an organization created to inspire and empower Individuals who have lost a loved one and are feeling stuck, overwhelmed, numb, and vulnerable. At the heart of her book, WHAT’S YOUR STORY is her passion for helping others and sharing her experiences. Ashmeeta's desire is for others to recognize that profound loss need not signify the end of one's story; rather, it can mark the commencement of a new and meaningful chapter. Her story is one of love, acceptance, forgiveness, gratitude, growth, and self-discovery. You can connect with Ashmeeta here: https://storyoutellyourself.com/ Thank you for letting us be in your ears. Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is a created by Anne Gudger and Maria Gibson, a mom/daughter duowho talk about grief. You can find them on Facebook at Coffee and Grief. Please join their private Facebook page: Coffee and Grief Community. You can also email Anne and Maria at: [email protected] Anne’s memoir, THE FIFTH CHAMBER, a memoir of loss and love, is available wherever you get your books. Please review THE FIFTH CHAMBER on Amazon and Goodreads. No matter where you bought your copy, you can review it on those sites. We so appreciate you taking the time. We’d love you to like and share the podcast!

Beth reads a piece about a beloved friend who died by suicide almost four decades ago. She talks about long term grief, the importance of writing our stories, the importance of sharing our stories. Beth leads the Big Island Writers’ Workshop in Hawai’i and in cities throughout the U.S, and since 2020, also on Zoom. Beth’s mission is to empower women to find their stories and get them out in the world. She likes to think of it as “mining for stories.” A great joy is facilitating writing retreats in Hawaii at the Volcano, and most recently in the Cloud-Forest. In 2025, Beth will be leading a retreat in Scotland. Her writing is published in a number of anthologies, literary journals, and news media sites, including Huff Post, Scary Mommy, iHeart Media, and others. She’s a book editor, a performer, and a stage director, and loves directing writers’ performing their pieces as acting monologues in her “Performing The Story” platform. Beth spent a number of years as a script writer for a dozen animated TV series including Batman, Jem and The Holograms, and Spielberg’s Tiny Toon Adventures (for which she and the writing team won an Emmy). She’s proud to have created the first female Transformer in the “Transformers” cartoon. Find out more about Beth at:bethbornsteindunnigton.com. Thank you for letting us be in your ears. Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is a created by Anne Gudger and Maria Gibson, a mom/daughter duo who talk about grief. You can find them on Facebook at Coffee and Grief. Please join their private Facebook page: Coffee and Grief Community. You can also email Anne and Maria at: [email protected] Anne’s memoir, THE FIFTH CHAMBER, a memoir of loss and love, is available wherever you get your books. Please review THE FIFTH CHAMBER on Amazon and Goodreads. No matter where you bought your copy, you can review it on those sites. We so appreciate you taking the time. Thank you for liking and sharing the podcast!

Gina talks about the complexities of grief, how grief is the great equalizer, and how we can be clumsy and awkward together. She shares how she wrote her book, Moving On Doesn’t Mean Letting go: a Modern Guide to Navigating Loss. She wanted to reach more people than she could in her practice and make grief work accessible to many. Her book is an amazing resource that we highly recommend. Gina is a licensed psychotherapist, mental health educator, and media consultant in New York City. In practice for nearly two decades, she has helped thousands of people seeking treatment for trauma, grief, as well as challenging life experiences and transitions.As a grief therapist, she wanted to find a way to educate people about the grief experience to help the experience to be less debilitating for the long term.  With that intention, she wrote the book, Moving On Doesn't Mean Letting go: A Modern Guide to Navigating Loss (Hachette), which has been quoted in international publications, such as Forbes and USA Today, as well as NPR. Gina is working on her next book, a book that will explore friendship loss and the importance of sustaining and nurturing friendship. https://ginamoffa.com Thank you for letting us be in your ears. Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is a created by Anne Gudger and Maria Gibson, a mom/daughter duo who talk about grief. You can find them on Facebook at Coffee and Grief. Please join their private Facebook page: Coffee and Grief Community. Their next 30day writing group, Write Your Grief Out, is coming in October. You can also email Anne and Maria at: [email protected] Anne’s memoir, THE FIFTH CHAMBER, a memoir of loss and love, is available wherever you get your books. Please review THE FIFTH CHAMBER on Amazon and Goodreads. No matter where you bought your copy, you can review it on those sites. We so appreciate you taking the time. We’d love you to like and share the podcast!

Robin reads an essay that was published in Narratively about becoming a widow while she was in the process of getting divorced. Her essay opens up questions about how we navigate griefs that don’t fit in any boxes. Robin’s almost ex-husband had a girlfriend and they were planning on getting married, but his unexpected death changed everything. Robin shares how she included the girlfriend in as many decisions as possible, how she acknowledged that the girlfriend’s heart was the broken heart. Robin even bought a burial plot for the girlfriend next to her husband. Robin Eileen Bernstein is a writer in New York City with bylines in The New York Times (including the Modern Love column), The Washington Post, Boston Globe Magazine, Salon, The Daily News, Newsday, Weekly Humorist, Narratively, Next Avenue and more. Several of her pieces explore her unusual experience of being widowed while getting divorced. She's also working on a memoir about growing up 1970s Rockaway, NY, when she was a quiet teen who pursued her unlikely dream of being a drummer in a rock-n-roll band. An excerpt was a shortlisted finalist in Craft Magazine’s 2023 Setting Sketch Challenge.  Robin has read her essays aloud at storytelling events in New York City and beyond, is an award-winning speechwriter, and was twice a first-round judge in the Erma Bombeck Writing Competition. In the visual arts, her figure drawings have been published in Persimmon Tree and Linea. More at robineileenbernstein.com. Thank you for letting us be in your ears. Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is a created by Anne Gudger and Maria Gibson, a mom/daughter duo who talk about grief. You can find them on Facebook at Coffee and Grief. Please join their private Facebook page: Coffee and Grief Community. If you’d like to learn more about their grief writing group that happens in October, please go to: https://writeyourgriefout.thinkific.com/ You can also email Anne and Maria at: [email protected] Anne’s memoir, THE FIFTH CHAMBER, a memoir of loss and love is available wherever you buy your books. Please review THE FIFTH CHAMBER on Amazon and Goodreads. No matter where you bought your copy, or if you read it from the library, you can review it on those sites. We deeply appreciate you taking the time. Thank you for liking and sharing the podcast!

Kelly talks about her range of grief from divorce, to the death of her kids’ father, her dad’s death and more. In this engaging, funny, tender conversation Kelly offers fabulous suggestions, like instead of asking someone “How are you?” she asks, “How are you right this second?” After 22 years of fulltime freelancing, Kelly K. James made the decision to go “in-house” at a small company — and wrote about the transition from freelancer to corporate employee. The Book That (Almost) Got Me Fired: How I (Barely) Survived a Year in Corporate America is Kelly’s first memoir, an entertaining, honest account what to do (and what not) when you make that corporate leap in midlife.   A former attorney, she has been writing for a living, as a fulltime freelancer, and more recently, a corporate content writer, for more than 20 years. Currently she writes legal content by day and health/wellness, fitness, psychology, and career-related articles by night. Her freelance work has appeared in more than 65 major online and print publications including Huffington Post, The Girlfriend, NextTribe, Next Avenue,  Chicago Health, Vibrant Life, and many other markets. You can find out more about Kelly at http://www.kellykjames.net, https://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/kellykjames/https://kellykjames.contently.com, https://kellykjames.contently.com Thank you for letting us be in your ears. Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is a created by Anne Gudger and Maria Gibson, a mom/daughter duo who talk about grief. You can find them on Facebook at Coffee and Grief. Please join their private Facebook page: Coffee and Grief Community. Their next 30day writing group, Write Your Grief Out, is coming in October. More here: https://writeyourgriefout.thinkific.com You can also email Anne and Maria at: [email protected] Anne’s memoir, THE FIFTH CHAMBER, a memoir of loss and love, is available wherever you get your books. Please review THE FIFTH CHAMBER on Amazon and Goodreads. No matter where you bought your copy, you can review it on those sites. We so appreciate you taking the time to review Anne’s memoir. We’d love you to like and share the podcast!

We’re delighted to share our recent Coffee Talk with these phenomenal writers/readers: Robert McBride, Lucy Filppu, Ona Gritz, Heather Morris, and Anne Gudger. If you missed it or want to relisten, here it is. The readers all brought the best heart medicine. Thank you for letting us be in your ears. Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is a created by Anne Gudger and Maria Gibson, a mom/daughter duo who talk about grief. You can find them on Facebook at Coffee and Grief. Please join their private Facebook page: Coffee and Grief Community. You can also email Anne and Maria at: [email protected] Anne’s memoir, THE FIFTH CHAMBER, a memoir of loss and love, is available wherever you get your books. Please review THE FIFTH CHAMBER on Amazon and Goodreads. No matter where you bought your copy, you can review it on those sites. We so appreciate you taking the time to review Anne’s memoir. We’d love you to like and share the podcast!

Lisa Keefauver shares insights and compassion along with humor. She talks about the importance of sharing her husband’s life, not just his death. She encourages grief supporters to keep showing up for our grievers and to remember it’s not anyone’s job to fix them. Grievers aren’t broken. There’s nothing to fix. Her fabulous book: GRIEF IS A SNEAKY BITCH: An Uncensored Guide to Navigating Loss is out today! It’s one to own and gift. We love it as a grief resource. Lisa Keefauver is a grief activist. Her wisdom on the topic of grief and loss are rooted in the decades she spent as a social worker, narrative therapist, non-profit co-founder, clinical supervisor and more. Her insights on grief are also embodied from personal losses, including the death of her husband when she was just 40 years old. Lisa's grief advocacy has inspired her to create and host the top-rated podcast, Grief is a Sneaky Bitch; serve as an adjunct professor of Loss and Grief at the University of Texas at Austin; act as an organizational consultant to facilitate grief-smart organizations; write/appear as a thought leader across media platforms and as a keynote speaker. Watch her popular TEDx Talk, Why Knowing More About Grief Can Make it Suck Less. You can pre-order her heavily anticipated book, Grief Is A Sneaky Bitch: An Uncensored Guide to Navigating Loss now. It arrives in bookstores today, June 4. Thank you for letting us be in your ears. Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is a created by Anne Gudger and Maria Gibson, a mom/daughter duo who talk about grief. You can find them on Facebook at Coffee and Grief. Please join their private Facebook page: Coffee and Grief Community. If you’d like to learn more about their grief writing group that happens in October, please go to: https://writeyourgriefout.thinkific.com/ You can also email Anne and Maria at: [email protected] Anne’s memoir, THE FIFTH CHAMBER, a memoir of loss and love is available wherever you buy your books. Please review THE FIFTH CHAMBER on Amazon and Goodreads. No matter where you bought your copy, or if you read it from the library, you can review it on those sites. We deeply appreciate you taking the time. Please like and share the podcast!

Helen shares her wisdom and heart in this deep and wide conversation where she reminds us to have compassion for ourselves and others, where she reminds us that healing can come from holding each other with the same vulnerability we’d like to be held, where she reminds us everyone can make a difference. Helen Marie is a registered integrative therapist in the UK with a Post Graduate Diploma in Psychotherapy and Counseling from Regent’s University, London and a member of the BACP. She also holds a certificate as a Clinical Trauma Practitioner. Her new book Choose You: gentle words to help you heal and grow is just out. It’s a gorgeous book we hope you’ll buy. You can read more about her book on her website, and follow her on Instagram. https://www.helenmariepsychotherapy.com/ https://www.instagram.com/h.e.l.e.n.m.a.r.i.e/ Thank you for letting us be in your ears. Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is a created by Anne Gudger and Maria Gibson, a mom/daughter duo who talk about grief. You can find them on Facebook at Coffee and Grief. Please join their private Facebook page: Coffee and Grief Community. If you’d like to learn more about their grief writing group that happens in October, please go to: https://writeyourgriefout.thinkific.com/ You can also email Anne and Maria at: [email protected] Anne’s memoir, THE FIFTH CHAMBER, a memoir of loss and love is available wherever you buy your books. Please review THE FIFTH CHAMBER on Amazon and Goodreads. No matter where you bought your copy, or if you read it from the library, you can review it on those sites. We deeply appreciate you taking the time. Please like and share the podcast!

Coffee Talk #58: a special reading honoring Harvey Walker. Our dear Monica Welty emceed this evening, remembering/honoring her son Harvey who died 11 years ago. It's a beautiful event with four amazing readers: Ami Patel, Danielle Woermann, Krista Dabakis Price, and Monica Welty. If you missed it or want to relisten, here it is. They all brought the best heart medicine. What a tender evening. Thank you for letting us be in your ears. Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is a created by Anne Gudger and Maria Gibson, a mom/daughter duo who talk about grief. You can find them on Facebook at Coffee and Grief. Please join their private Facebook page: Coffee and Grief Community. You can also email Anne and Maria at: [email protected] Anne’s memoir, THE FIFTH CHAMBER, a memoir of loss and love, came out in September. You can buy it wherever you get your books. Please review THE FIFTH CHAMBER on Amazon and Goodreads. No matter where you bought your copy, you can review it on those sites. We so appreciate you taking the time to review Anne’s memoir. We’d love you to like and share the podcast!

In this tender conversation with Jessica Fein she shares the power of vulnerability and talks about how grief is love, how she’s grown her heart and understands that joy and sorrow live together. She tells her story of her daughter’s illness and death, and how her ambiguous grief was so different from what she names Hallmark card grief—the grief we think of when someone dies. Jessica Fein is the author of Breath Taking: A Memoir of Family, Dreams, and Broken Genes and host of the "I Don't Know How You Do It” podcast, which features people whose lives seem unimaginable from the outside. Jessica is a working mother and a relentless warrior in the memory of her dynamic daughter whom she lost to rare disease in 2022. Her work encompasses hope and humor, grit and grace—the tools that make up her personal survival kit. She’s a seasoned media contributor, with forums including Newsweek, Psychology Today, The Boston Globe, HuffPost, and more. To learn more visit www.jessicafeinstories.com. Jessica’s book is just out. You can buy it wherever you buy books. Thank you for letting us be in your ears. Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is a created by Anne Gudger and Maria Gibson, a mom/daughter duo who talk about grief. You can find them on Facebook at Coffee and Grief. Please join their private Facebook page: Coffee and Grief Community. You can also email Anne and Maria at: [email protected] Anne’s memoir, THE FIFTH CHAMBER, a memoir of loss and love, came out in September. You can buy it wherever you get your books. Please review THE FIFTH CHAMBER on Amazon and Goodreads. No matter where you bought your copy, you can review it on those sites. We so appreciate you taking the time to review Anne’s memoir. We’d love you to like and share the podcast!