Stillbirth - Russ

12/02/20 • 21 min

Maureen Pollard interviews Russ about his experience in losing his son to stillbirth. Russ talks about how it happened at 8 months into the pregnancy meaning his wife still had to go through labor, the process of which took over a day, and how hard it was to watch her: "from my eyes, to see her go through that and to know there is no joy at the end of this". They discuss how one of the biggest challenges for him after the loss was 'being a man' because there's an expectation for men to get over things quickly, but how it was a challenge to keep going, losing friends along the way because many did not know how to listen to him talk about his loss of a child. They also discuss how his other son is his saviour, forcing him to get up every day and keep living, and how Russ found comfort in nature, through planting a garden with plants that bloomed around his son's birthday.

Previous Episode

Losing a Father to Cancer - Sam

Maureen Pollard interviews Sam about his experience of losing his father to cancer. They discuss how this was Sam's first personal experience with grief and it took him out of his character, causing him to fall into a depressive state of not sleeping or eating enough, and isolating to keep people at bay because he didn't want to talk. "This was the very first, incredibly impactful, dramatic, traumatic experience I'd ever gone through so the biggest challenge for me was grief in general and these brand new emotions I had never had to deal with." They also discuss how instrumental his best friend was in his healing journey, how he checked in on him every single day and showed up as an incredible support system, as well as how simply being able to talk openly about his father has helped Sam to grieve for him.

Next Episode

Sudden Loss of a Partner - Kara

Maureen Pollard interviews Kara about her experience of losing her life partner of 38 years suddenly and unexpectedly when she suffered a fatal pulmonary embolism. Kara opens up about how different the world was almost 40 years ago, and how she wasn't sure how her partner's family would react to her, how they hadn't discussed their partnership which made the day she died also feel like their coming out day. They talk about the challenges of learning to live again, how going to the grocery store for the first time was difficult because she didn't know what SHE wanted, she was so used to buying for both of them. Kara describes this process as "losing the we, and becoming a me". They also discuss how important it was for Kara to stop focusing on the day her partner died, instead she learned to remember the good memories; and how she had to accept that she became a different person after her loss, but the feelings and the love for her partner remain.