Shownotes
Angie Hanson had to figure out how to live her life without her son, husband and brother after losing them. This is her story and she is RESILIENT A.F.
About the Guest:
Angie Hanson is an author and the founder of Butterflies + Halos, a grief-focused stationery company. After enduring the heartbreaking losses of her son, husband, and brother within just 2.5 years, Angie transformed her pain into purpose. Her memoir, Chapters of a Resilient Heart, offers an intimate look at her journey through grief and resilience. Through Butterflies + Halos, she creates heartfelt greeting cards that help grieving individuals and their supporters find the words to connect, heal, and honor their feelings. Angie is also in the process of becoming a certified grief coach where she will use her knowledge and teachings to help guide others through their own journey of grief and help them also find their resilience. Angie's mission is to ensure that no one feels unseen in their grief, and she continues to inspire others to navigate loss with grace, courage, and empathy.
Links:
https://www.butterfliesandhalos.com
https://butterfliesandhalos.etsy.com
https://www.instagram.com/butterfliesandhalos
https://www.facebook.com/butterflieandhalos
https://www.tiktok.com/@butterfliesandhalos
www.linkedin.com/in/angie-hanson-09a85290
Gift: Any listeners can go to my website or Etsy shop and will receive 15% off their entire order by using the code: PODCAST15
⚠️ Content Note: Some episodes may contain themes that could be distressing. Please take care of yourself while listening, and don’t hesitate to seek support from a mental health professional if needed.
About the Hosts:
Blair Kaplan Venables is a British Columbia-based grief and resilience expert and coach, motivational speaker and the Founder of The Global Resilience Project. Her expertise has been featured on media platforms like Forbes, TEDx, CBC Radio, Entrepreneur, and Thrive Global. She is named the Top Grief and Resilience Expert of the Year 2024 by IAOTP. USA Today listed Blair as one of the top 10 conscious female leaders to watch and she empowers others to be resilient from stages around the world. 'MyStory,’ which is a television show available on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+ and Google Play, showcases Blair's life story. She is the host of the Radical Resilience podcast and specializes in helping people strengthen their resilience muscle using scientifically proven methods and guides grieving high performers with her Navigating Grief Framework. The Global Resilience Project’s award-winning book series are international bestsellers, and her fourth book, RESILIENT A.F.: Stories of Resilience Vol 2, will be published in January 2025. In her free time, you can find Blair writing, in nature, travelling the world and helping people to strengthen their resilience muscles.
Links:
https://theglobalresilienceproject.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/blairdkaplan
https://www.facebook.com/blair.kaplan
https://www.facebook.com/BlairKaplanCommunications
https://www.instagram.com/globalresiliencecommunity
https://www.instagram.com/blairfromblairland/
https://www.facebook.com/globalresiliencecommunity
https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-global-resilience-project
Alana Kaplan is a compassionate mental health professional based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. She works in the mental health field, and is a co-host of the Resilient A.F. podcast. Fueled by advocacy, Alana is known for standing up and speaking out for others. Passionate about de-stigmatizing and normalizing mental health, Alana brings her experience to The Global Resilience Project’s team, navigating the role one’s mental health plays in telling their story.
Engaging in self-care and growth keeps her going, and her love for reading, travel, and personal relationships helps foster that. When she’s not working, Alana can often be found on walks, working on a crossword puzzle, or playing with any animal she sees.
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Transcripts
I didn't know who I was grieving, you know, because, you know, like I said
Speaker:before, during that time period, I kind of put Garrett's his death and his
Speaker:grief kind of on the back burner. And once I started journaling
Speaker:and I started sectioning out who I was grieving, I I had to
Speaker:pick a day. Today, I'm gonna if Garrett popped in my mind, I'm grieving
Speaker:him. If Jack popped in my mind, I'm grieving him. If, you know, if it
Speaker:was my brother, Seth, you know, that's who I do. And then
Speaker:going forward, you know, I I was like, Gracie deserves a beautiful
Speaker:life. She deserves happiness. She deserves all
Speaker:that I can give her and more. And, you know,
Speaker:because I didn't just lose these people, she lost these people. You know,
Speaker:she lost her baby brother. She lost her daddy and her
Speaker:favorite uncle. Welcome back to another episode of
Speaker:Resilient AF with Blair and Alana. But today, it's only
Speaker:Blair, but also Angie Hanson.
Speaker:So Angie is amazing. She is the author and the founder of
Speaker:Butterflies and Halos, a grief focused stationery company.
Speaker:After enduring the heartbreaking losses of her son, husband, and brother
Speaker:within just two and a half years, Angie transformed her pain into
Speaker:purpose. Her memoir, Chapters of Resilient Heart, offers an
Speaker:intimate look at her journey through grief and resilience. Through butterflies and
Speaker:halos, she creates heartfelt greeting cards that helps grieving individuals
Speaker:and their supporters find the words to connect, heal, and honor their
Speaker:feelings. She's also in the process of becoming a certified grief
Speaker:coach, where she's going to use her knowledge and her teachings to guide
Speaker:others through their journey of grief to help them also find their resilience.
Speaker:Angie's mission is to ensure no one feels unseen in their
Speaker:grief, and she continues to inspire others to navigate loss with
Speaker:grace, courage, and empathy. Welcome to the
Speaker:show. Hello. Blair, how are you?
Speaker:Good. How are you? I'm doing good. I'm doing good.
Speaker:Yeah. That's that's a lot of loss in such a short period of time, and,
Speaker:I sort of I sort of understand the complex
Speaker:grief. And I can't even imagine what it was like to
Speaker:lose your husband, your son, and your brother.
Speaker:Let's talk about it. Tell us the story. Well,
Speaker:yeah, I, very typical normal family is what
Speaker:we were. This brief journey,
Speaker:really just kind of came out of nowhere for us. And
Speaker:in 2006, we
Speaker:we received an unexpected phone call from the
Speaker:sheriff's office letting us know that our son
Speaker:had, stopped breathing at his day care provider's house,
Speaker:and she tried to do CPR and do all
Speaker:the measures she could. And Garrett was life flighted to
Speaker:the hospital, and, when we arrived there,
Speaker:we were told that Garrett did not survive. And so
Speaker:that really started the the journey of
Speaker:the most crazy, I
Speaker:guess, heartbreak, gut wrenching path
Speaker:that I've ever been on in my life. And, you know, we didn't really
Speaker:know at the moment really kinda what happened to our son, and he
Speaker:was perfectly healthy. He had just turned 1. He had his
Speaker:we had his birthday party 6 days prior to that.
Speaker:And, you know, we just kind of moved through the motions,
Speaker:honestly, during that time period. We were surrounded by a
Speaker:community of family, friends, and,
Speaker:everybody really just tried to rally around us and tried to
Speaker:hold us up. And, we found out
Speaker:about a month after our son had died that he had an undetected
Speaker:heart defect. And it, basically, his
Speaker:right coronary artery was kinked, and it always
Speaker:causes sudden death. And it's either an extreme rest or
Speaker:extreme activity, and Garrett was napping at the time.
Speaker:So, yeah, there's really there's no detection for it.
Speaker:And so yes. So that was that was the
Speaker:beginning. So June 2006 is when it all started.
Speaker:So Garrett was 1.
Speaker:Yes. He died in 2,006. That
Speaker:is so heartbreaking. Yes. I had and
Speaker:I had no idea that rest was so
Speaker:deadly. Yes. Yes. No one one would not think
Speaker:that. You know, we just
Speaker:we just really were trying to find the answers for everything. Like,
Speaker:what did we do wrong? Did we do something? Did I do something wrong during
Speaker:my pregnancy? You know, I I wanted or needed the answers, I
Speaker:thought. But as we, moved through
Speaker:the the months, and
Speaker:we knew that we were never gonna have the exact answers, and
Speaker:we realized that this was this was the path laid out before us.
Speaker:So how are we going to how are we going to
Speaker:make our path okay? And our daughter was 4 at the
Speaker:time, and so we had a lot to live for. We had a
Speaker:lot to give, and we had
Speaker:to give Gracie, our daughter, the the life that she
Speaker:she needed and deserved. So that's where we poured everything into.
Speaker:Yeah. So heartbreaking and and,
Speaker:you know, I I mean, there's no manual. And I can't imagine all of the
Speaker:different different thoughts you'd have had, like, what could you have done, you
Speaker:know, differently, or what did you do, or what could have been done. And, you
Speaker:know, it just sounds, like, it just sounds painful and
Speaker:sad and messy. And
Speaker:and that was that was just the beginning of of some losses.
Speaker:Right? Yes. Yes. So fast forward, you
Speaker:know, we we made it a year after Garrett had died. So June
Speaker:2007, we we celebrated Garrett
Speaker:on his anniversary, his 1 year anniversary because we had survived.
Speaker:And so let's celebrate that on a and honor Garrett's memory,
Speaker:and that's exactly what we did. And,
Speaker:my husband, Jack, he was he traveled,
Speaker:and so he traveled quite a bit. And he came home,
Speaker:this was in August. He came home, and he was having issues with his eye.
Speaker:And so just bothersome, irritated, itchy, red.
Speaker:And, we looked at it. I couldn't find anything in
Speaker:it. This went on for weeks weeks, and he went
Speaker:to the doctor, got eye drops, over the counter, went to an
Speaker:ophthalmologist. They couldn't see anything. And,
Speaker:like I said, this kinda just went on for approximately
Speaker:about a month, actually. And, finally, in
Speaker:October, something popped through his eye, and we found out
Speaker:that Jack had ocular melanoma. So he had a
Speaker:large tumor in his eye, and it popped through his iris so they
Speaker:could finally see it. So it looks,
Speaker:yeah, it's crazy. If you actually look at, the pictures of it, it
Speaker:actually looks like a pig's snout. It's really ugly. It's a
Speaker:brown pig's snout. That's what it looks like, but it's it's you
Speaker:know, I don't know what people imagine a tumor looks like, but when I think
Speaker:of a tumor, I just think of a round ball sometimes until I saw
Speaker:these images. And I then I realized that tumors
Speaker:are ugly, and they look like scary
Speaker:beasts, and that's what they are. And so that's what we
Speaker:kinda had pegged his tumor as. He was gonna
Speaker:just try to kill the beast. And so Jack
Speaker:went through, chemo and radiation,
Speaker:radiation of the eye, and, his
Speaker:he was diagnosed, I should say, he was diagnosed stage 4
Speaker:terminal cancer because it had spread to his liver, his
Speaker:brain, and his spleen. So, the
Speaker:radiation was basically trying to rid the
Speaker:tumors from his brain and, make
Speaker:the tumor in his eye smaller. And, you know, he did
Speaker:that for 16 months. Jack battled for 16 months,
Speaker:and he lost his battle on February 8,
Speaker:2009. So just about two and a half years after our son had
Speaker:died, and there was just
Speaker:nothing that you know, he did everything he could. He he
Speaker:fought so hard. He did all the things, but the
Speaker:beast that we called it, just was a lot stronger
Speaker:than he was at that moment. And, I do say though
Speaker:that he did win the fight against the beast because he he has
Speaker:the eternal life. So Yeah. Oh,
Speaker:that's so heartbreaking. And it also must have been so frustrating because he
Speaker:knew something was wrong and the medical professionals weren't,
Speaker:like, delivering him the new like, the updates
Speaker:in the news. Yeah. And imagine the pain that
Speaker:he was living with. Yeah. Yeah. The biggest thing was it was
Speaker:it was hidden behind the ciliary body of his eyes.
Speaker:So if you know anything about the eyeball, there you have this little, you know,
Speaker:your iris and the ciliary body. It was hidden behind there, and that's finally it
Speaker:broke through the iris, and that's when they could see it. And, I mean, he
Speaker:went through extensive testing. We live in Nebraska in
Speaker:the United States, and we actually had to go to Iowa,
Speaker:the University of Iowa because they have a huge ophthalmology department there.
Speaker:So, Nebraska at that time in 2007
Speaker:didn't have the equipment to diagnose him with that. So it's just
Speaker:it's amazing because, you know, we have come so
Speaker:far. And but we're still so far away.
Speaker:Yeah. Wow. That sounds that's a lot, especially because,
Speaker:you know, you're carrying the grief of of Garrett, and then to have that
Speaker:happen to Jack. I I just can't even imagine
Speaker:losing to the most you know, 2 people so close
Speaker:to you that were so intertwined in your heart.
Speaker:Yeah. You know, and that was the thing. I I had a lot of,
Speaker:regret just because we kinda did put Garrett's
Speaker:his grief our grief with Garrett on the back burner just a little bit
Speaker:because our sole focus at that time was,
Speaker:survival for Jack. And, not that we
Speaker:did not think of Garrett every single day, but it kind
Speaker:of it it slowed my grief process down for my
Speaker:son as what really happened. And,
Speaker:you know, then, you know, we
Speaker:we just after we lost him, my daughter was 6 at the
Speaker:time, and we just kind of I just thought,
Speaker:okay. Here I am a widow. I'm a lost mom,
Speaker:and Gracie and I, we're going to we're going to do this.
Speaker:We're we've got this, and we still had our, you
Speaker:know, our community and our family and friends surrounding us.
Speaker:And in my brother in
Speaker:March, just a month after my husband had died,
Speaker:my brother, Seth, had actually been battling a brain tumor,
Speaker:for 5 years. And he had
Speaker:had, two brain surgeries to remove the brain
Speaker:tumor. And his brain tumors had always come back as,
Speaker:like stage 1, or grade 1 is how they grade the brain tumors.
Speaker:And he never needed any chemo or radiation or anything.
Speaker:But, in March, right after late
Speaker:February, early March, right after Jack had died, he started having
Speaker:issues again. And so we he had his
Speaker:3rd brain surgery on March 13th. And,
Speaker:this time, it came back as a grade 3. So it
Speaker:had grown, and it had,
Speaker:become uglier. You know? It started becoming the beast in my
Speaker:brother. And my brother never bounced back,
Speaker:really from his surgery. And he really
Speaker:he really I mean, he tried as hard as he
Speaker:was 65, and he was just he was a strong man,
Speaker:and he did all the right things. And he had just been
Speaker:married about a year and a half, and he ended up
Speaker:losing his battle with his brain tumor, 1 2
Speaker:months after my husband's, on April 7, 2009.
Speaker:And so, you know, at that time in my life,
Speaker:I really that's when I kind of really lost all hope and
Speaker:faith in everything. I was extremely
Speaker:lost. Here I was very alone.
Speaker:And, you know, then it turned to where where do you lean on your
Speaker:family? Because we are all lose we all lost the same people in
Speaker:different aspects. You know? My parents had lost their son, their
Speaker:grandson, their son-in-law, you know, my in laws, you know, same. And it
Speaker:was just like, how how do we even navigate all of
Speaker:this? And I don't sometimes,
Speaker:I don't know how we did it. And, you know, I just know
Speaker:that at that moment in time, I
Speaker:after my brother had died, I was just like, Angie,
Speaker:you have a daughter. You have a life. You
Speaker:have to put 2 steps forward, however that looks.
Speaker:Each day you get up, you're you're taking your
Speaker:daughter to school. You're you're going to do this. And it was just
Speaker:a practice that I had to tell myself every single day.
Speaker:And was it easy? Absolutely not.
Speaker:Was it lonely? Extremely.
Speaker:I I still look back at those days and those
Speaker:months, and I I wonder how.
Speaker:But I I journaled a ton. I mean, I had
Speaker:my you know, I just had my faith. I leaned on my faith, and
Speaker:I just had to live by the conversations that I had
Speaker:with Jack prior to his death. You
Speaker:know, knowing that he was going to die, we talked a lot about
Speaker:moving forward. And so, that's
Speaker:kind of what I leaned on. Yeah. Wow.
Speaker:That's your outlook in such
Speaker:a dark place in time, I think, is
Speaker:really inspiring. Because when you're
Speaker:in, like, the pits of hell, rock
Speaker:bottom, like that level of sadness, it's hard to
Speaker:function. And I can't even imagine still also having to be
Speaker:responsible for a whole another human. Yeah.
Speaker:Right? Right. And I I
Speaker:can't even imagine that. And I feel
Speaker:like Gracie, right, your daughter? Yes. Correct. Was like this
Speaker:beacon of light, this this symbol of hope, and that
Speaker:together, you know, you could link arms and take that one step
Speaker:at a time, that one foot in front of the other approach. But that
Speaker:doesn't negate the feelings of the grief and the compound trauma and the
Speaker:sorrow and even, like, knowing
Speaker:which, you know, which grief is what feeling. Right?
Speaker:Mhmm. But your outlook on that is so beautiful. And I am so sorry
Speaker:for all of your losses. Like, that is just so
Speaker:sad. It is sad. It is it is very sad.
Speaker:And, you know, that's that's one of the things, like, you said just a
Speaker:minute ago. That's when I really had to I didn't
Speaker:know who I was grieving, you know, because, you know, like I said before,
Speaker:during that time period, I kind of put Garrett's,
Speaker:his death and his grief kind of on the back burner. And once I started
Speaker:journaling and I started sectioning out, who I
Speaker:was grieving, I I had to pick a day. Today, I'm gonna if Garrett
Speaker:popped in my mind, I'm grieving him. If Jack popped in my mind, I'm grieving
Speaker:him. If, you know, if it was my brother, Seth, you know, that's who I
Speaker:do. And then going forward, you know, I was just really,
Speaker:I was like, Gracie deserves a beautiful life. She
Speaker:deserves happiness. She deserves all that I can
Speaker:give her and more. And, you know, because I
Speaker:didn't just lose these people, she lost these people. You know, she lost her baby
Speaker:brother. She lost her daddy and her favorite uncle. You
Speaker:know? And I yeah. Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah. You know? And I feel like I
Speaker:can talk to you for hours, Angie. I mean, my
Speaker:story everyone's story is so unique, but, like, going through such compound
Speaker:loss, you know, my husband almost died. We miscarried.
Speaker:3 weeks later, my father-in-law died. 3 months later, my mom died both suddenly after
Speaker:a 3 week battle with cancer while my dad was dying, and then he died
Speaker:the same year as my mom. And, like, going through such compound grief and being
Speaker:a bereaved mother and, like, becoming an orphan and,
Speaker:like, almost becoming a widow in my thirties.
Speaker:Thank god that didn't happen because I needed him. I need I
Speaker:needed Shane. Yeah. Even though we were very much the wounded
Speaker:helping the wounded. Exactly. And and, you know, it's really interesting how you said that.
Speaker:Like, how do you who do you lean on? And so I know
Speaker:my losses happened during the pandemic while I also was running a business.
Speaker:And, you know, we lived in one place. My father-in-law died in
Speaker:a different place. My mother died across the country, same with my dad,
Speaker:height of the pandemic. It was just all these other added layers,
Speaker:and I'm a high performer. Duh.
Speaker:And I didn't know what I was doing. And luckily, I had
Speaker:sobriety on my side because it helped me, like, not numb and I
Speaker:had to, you know, feel and heal. I didn't have to heal, but I I
Speaker:had to feel and that helped me heal. But, it's interesting
Speaker:because you are becoming a grief coach, and I've actually stepped into that as
Speaker:well as a grief and resilience coach because I became the person I wish
Speaker:I had. Really helping people navigate grief, but I created a whole
Speaker:navigating grief framework base basically, a checklist on, like, how to put
Speaker:that one foot in front of the other and became that griefy BFF
Speaker:so that when someone has such a tragic loss, they don't have to lean on
Speaker:their partner or their family because they're also grieving. And
Speaker:have, you know, me or you come in as that griefy BFF to hold your
Speaker:hand because we don't need to go through it alone. Exactly. Exactly.
Speaker:Yes. I love that. That's that's exactly where I'm at too. I'm just,
Speaker:we need we need to be able to surround these people that don't have the
Speaker:people. And, yeah, the compounded grief
Speaker:is just it's it's a lot. It's it's it's a lot. It's
Speaker:complex. It's you know, I I it's it's interesting. Like, this is about
Speaker:you, so I don't wanna go too deep into this, and that's gonna probably be
Speaker:for another episode. But over the last, like, few years, when it
Speaker:came to, like, bereaved mother's day or, like, pregnancy loss awareness
Speaker:day, certain days or even when people learn I
Speaker:miscarried, they'll ask me, did did you name your baby? And I I
Speaker:didn't until this week. Oh. My miscarriage
Speaker:was 4 years ago, and, but, like, I felt this like,
Speaker:I was just too numb before, but I felt this extreme grief. I'm like, I
Speaker:actually didn't and was very thoughtful about it, and I'm not I won't
Speaker:share it here. But, it's interesting because I wrote a letter to the baby.
Speaker:I wrote a letter because I didn't have a chance to process that loss
Speaker:because the day we the baby died, we learned Dave had cancer, my father-in-law. And
Speaker:then he died 3 weeks later. And so it's really interesting because I
Speaker:haven't really spent that much time grieving the baby. And,
Speaker:pulling apart which, you know, which grief is is
Speaker:surfacing has really been interesting. Mhmm. And
Speaker:I think, you know, and you you probably can speak to this also is that,
Speaker:you know, grief doesn't go away. We just learn to layer our life around it.
Speaker:We are just given more tools to navigate forward with this part of
Speaker:us that is no longer here and this new part of us that is.
Speaker:Yes. Yes. Yes. And that's one thing. And it's okay
Speaker:to I you know, people need to realize also it's okay to go back like
Speaker:you're doing. Go back and, you know, start start that grief process
Speaker:again. And, you know, you you're recognizing that you
Speaker:didn't do those properly, but now you want to.
Speaker:And you have the tools, you know, and you're
Speaker:able to do that. And so that's beautiful that you're able to
Speaker:acknowledge that and recognize that. Thank you. Oh, Angie.
Speaker:Okay. So we're we're gonna wrap up soon. I don't wanna I
Speaker:don't wanna, I don't wanna go too far, but down
Speaker:this because I have a lot of questions. But you're you're greeting card company? Yes.
Speaker:What's your most popular card? Well, I
Speaker:have actually 3. I have that sell the most. I
Speaker:sell these every day. Cardinals appear when loved ones are
Speaker:near. Oh. And then, like, my angelversary,
Speaker:like, thinking of you on your loved one's angelversary, and
Speaker:then, like, a happy heavenly birthday. I have snarky
Speaker:ones, one of the top ones. You know, like,
Speaker:the next time the next person that says some everything happens for a
Speaker:reason, I'll throw punch them for you. I hate that. I hate when people say
Speaker:that. I'm like, that is not true. Yes. I love that.
Speaker:I, you know, I I like to add a little snark in there because
Speaker:I you know, if my friend had lost her husband or spouse, you know, it's
Speaker:going I'm not going to give her a card that says with deepest sympathy or
Speaker:I'm so sorry for your loss. I'm just not going to do that. That's not
Speaker:how I talk to my best friend. So I'm going to give her the
Speaker:very first one that I created was I don't know what to
Speaker:say. Let's go eat one of those damn casseroles. Yeah. So, you
Speaker:know, so that's what I would do. Or that's Yes.
Speaker:Okay. When you actually after we first met, you made one
Speaker:that's that tell us about that one. Well yeah. So,
Speaker:because, I am going to be part of the
Speaker:volume 2 Resilient AF. I am super excited for
Speaker:that. And so after talking to you, I did. I made
Speaker:a card that says, you are resilient
Speaker:AF, and has a doodled I doodled a
Speaker:flower, and I just kinda made it all colorful, and I
Speaker:love it. Oh, I love it. And, you know, I think it's really cool. So,
Speaker:yes, you're gonna be in the book. It's coming out in January. I think we
Speaker:should definitely do a big, like, push. Maybe you if you're coming are you coming
Speaker:to New York? Yes. Yes. I'm coming to New York. A bunch of cards. Well,
Speaker:I was gonna actually I I I'm yeah. We'll talk about that. We'll talk about
Speaker:it. Anyways, I'm really saying. So Yeah. So for those of you out there who
Speaker:are like, what is going on in New York? Yeah. We're launching we're launching our,
Speaker:the book that Angie's gonna be in on January 25th with a
Speaker:well, we're gonna launch it in in January. But on January 25th,
Speaker:in Times Square, New York, all of our authors are gonna be featured on a
Speaker:billboard. And, I'm hosting, you know, hosting a a brunch
Speaker:for them to celebrate them on the Sunday. So if you're listening and you're in
Speaker:New York and, you know, you wanna meet up or maybe even if you're in
Speaker:the media, like, I'd be really cool to spread our word. But
Speaker:yeah. So and and I just, like, I can't wait to meet you in person
Speaker:because I know. I'm so excited. Yeah. And just I love that you did a
Speaker:resilient AF card. I think that's amazing. I have an idea for a card
Speaker:for Jewish grievers. I'll tell you offline because Okay. Perfect.
Speaker:Not because there's we're running out of time. So you have a gift. The gift
Speaker:is any listener can go to your Etsy shop, and the link is in the
Speaker:show notes. And, if you use the code podcast
Speaker:15, all caps, one word, podcast 15, you'll
Speaker:receive 15% off your entire order. I
Speaker:recommend going in like, the cards are cheeky. They're great. They're
Speaker:inspiring. You know, Alana and I love our tongue and cheek humor.
Speaker:I mean, our books are called resilient AF, so, like, duh. I said
Speaker:duh multiple times a day. And I I, you know, I think it's it's
Speaker:amazing. And all of her links are also in the show notes for her social
Speaker:media, her shop, her website. You know, follow along with her. You
Speaker:know, she's gonna be offering grief support, resilience support. She has
Speaker:her memoir. There's lots of ways to dive into Angie's world.
Speaker:Angie, what advice do you have for someone who's going through
Speaker:such complex grief with such profound
Speaker:losses in such a short period of time? Well, I
Speaker:bet I always go back to, choices. I
Speaker:say this a lot, and it's actually in my memoir that I
Speaker:wrote. I always talk about choices, but, you know, we
Speaker:all and I haven't written here because I otherwise, I'll I'll mess it up.
Speaker:But, you know, I pat practice the 3 c's of life,
Speaker:choices, chances, and changes. You must make a choice to take a chance
Speaker:on your life will never change. And, you know, with my
Speaker:grief, I had to make a choice whether to give it to give up or
Speaker:survive each day. I chose to survive. And by doing that, I had to take
Speaker:a chance on my broken heart and teach it to love and live. And during
Speaker:this process, I so slowly saw my life changing into a
Speaker:beautiful story of heartbreak, death, love, hope, and renewal.
Speaker:And so I just honestly lean on, how we
Speaker:choose to move forward in life. I love
Speaker:that. That's so beautiful. And I think there's a
Speaker:4th c you're missing. Cheese.
Speaker:Cheese. I'll add that one.
Speaker:Okay. And without the cheese Without the cheese, you'd have no
Speaker:gastrointestinal issues.
Speaker:Issues. I love cheese. I love cheese too. She does not love me.
Speaker:This is good. Yeah. That's that's really beautiful, and it's
Speaker:so true. Like, we can't control a lot of what
Speaker:happens, in our life is out of our control, but we get to choose
Speaker:how we react and what we do to move forward. And sometimes that choice might
Speaker:just be moving from the bed to the couch or, like, showering,
Speaker:but we have a choice. And, you know, you don't need to wait
Speaker:till you hit a rock bottom to make a choice to move forward.
Speaker:And Yeah. You're just so inspiring. Well, thank you. Yeah. And if you read my
Speaker:memoir, Chapters of Resilient Heart, which is on Amazon,
Speaker:you will read about, another girl in my book
Speaker:who made the wrong choice, and,
Speaker:that was my sister-in-law from my first marriage. And you can read
Speaker:about her story in my book, and that's why I say we all have choices.
Speaker:Oh, yeah. They're not always the best ones. Nope. I've made
Speaker:a lot of those. I've done a lot of those
Speaker:those choosings. You're amazing. So thank you for joining us
Speaker:today, Angie, and you're such a treat. Well,
Speaker:thank you for having me, and I can't wait for this journey to continue
Speaker:and just everything that's coming. Oh, so good. And thank you to
Speaker:everyone who tuned in to another episode of Resilient AF. These
Speaker:conversations are with real people going through real hard shit.
Speaker:And you know what? Life is not full of sunshine and rainbows.
Speaker:It's gonna get hard at some point, and that's why we exist. We're here,
Speaker:so we can be that lighthouse in the storm, so we can help you navigate
Speaker:that hard shit. And let us be that lighthouse.
Speaker:Let us be that light at the end of the tunnel. Let us provide you
Speaker:that support because it is okay to not be okay,
Speaker:and you are not alone. Friends, you
Speaker:are resilient AF.
