When Samantha first came on this podcast in Episode 282, she was only a few months out from losing Raiden.

She was raw and fresh in her grief — and yet even then, just four months into her loss, she reached out to ask me about Andy. She stepped outside her own pain to offer comfort to someone further down the road. I knew then that she was someone special.

Fourteen months later, she is back. And the question that quietly runs through everything she shares is one that every grieving parent eventually faces:

How do I keep being my child's mama when my child is gone?

For Samantha, the answer has taken the shape of bubbles.

Raiden loved bubbles the way only a little boy can — rain or shine, indoors or out, in the bathtub, in the yard, anywhere and everywhere. That love became the name and the heart of the Raiden Bubble Project, a space Samantha built out of the sudden quiet of life after losing her only child. What started as something to focus on grew into water safety advocacy, autism awareness, and a community where other lost moms feel safe enough to reach out. Her own therapist tells her she has learned things from following along. Mothers she has never met write to thank her. Lost mamas find their way to her, and she holds space for them.

She also created the Little Love Lost Mamas, a small close circle of moms who have become like family. And she has been working to bring a memorial arch to her community, a place where anyone can come, padlock the name of someone they love, and know they are not alone.

Every single thing she has built is her still parenting Raiden.

We also talk about the new baby boy arriving soon, Ryatt. Samantha is clear about something that I think many people need to hear: Ryatt is not a replacement for Raiden. He is someone she gets to share Raiden with.

That is the kind of love that doesn't end when a life does.

It just finds new ways to live on — in bubbles, in community, and in the quiet, faithful work of a mama who never stopped.

In this episode of Always Andy's Mom, I sit down with Leanne, Mikael's mom, for an honest and heartfelt conversation about grief, faith, and life after losing a child to addiction.

At the center of this episode is a powerful shift in perspective. After her son's death, Leanne struggled with the words "give thanks in all circumstances." But when reading the words more carefully, she noticed a subtle difference that shifted her understanding. She began to see the difference between being thankful for her circumstances and being thankful in them.

Leanne shares her experience loving her son through addiction, the heartbreak of loss, and the reality of grieving a child. She speaks about the tension between faith and pain, and how grief becomes something that stays, rather than something to overcome.

In this episode, we talk about:

• Child loss and grief after addiction and overdose

• The meaning of "thankful in, not for"

• Grief as an ongoing presence in daily life

• Faith, anger, and healing after loss

• Writing and poetry as tools for processing grief

Leanne also shares about her new book, Tattered Hearts and Hopeful Souls, a collection of devotional reflections and poetry that explores grief, faith, and healing. Her writing offers comfort and language for bereaved parents navigating life after loss.

This episode is a reminder that grief does not disappear. But over time, we can learn how to carry it. And even in the hardest circumstances, there can still be moments of meaning, connection, and quiet gratitude.

In this episode of Always Andy's Mom, Marcy speaks with Jean and Shelly about the loss of their daughter, Chantal, and the grief journey that followed after losing a child to cancer.

Jean remembers the exact moment everything changed: 8:15, the time Chantal died. That moment became the dividing line between the life they once knew and the life that followed.

Together they share the long and difficult experience of Chantal's cancer diagnosis, the exhausting treatments that followed, and the heartbreak of losing a child. They also talk about how grief continued to unfold in the years afterward and how healing slowly takes shape over time.

Jean reflects on something many parents feel deeply after the death of a child — the instinct to fix things and protect the people they love. His book, Dads Can't Fix Everything, grew out of that realization and explores the helplessness many fathers feel when faced with a loss that cannot be repaired.

Music has always been an important part of Jean and Shelly's lives together. After Chantal's death, that part of their world felt quiet for a time, but eventually music began to return, offering another way to carry love and memory forward.

Shelly also shares a moment that surprised her. Around the five-year mark in her grief journey, she realized that life felt recognizable again. It wasn't the life they once had, and grief was still present, but she began to feel like herself again.

In this conversation they discuss:
• losing a child to cancer
• how grief evolves over time
• the different ways parents process loss
• music and writing as ways of expressing grief
• and the ways families continue honoring the child who died

Nearly two decades later, Chantal is still remembered in simple but meaningful ways. Each year friends and family gather on her birthday for pizza and Caesars — her favorite — raising a glass and remembering the girl who continues to shape their lives.

This episode is a powerful reflection on grief, love, and learning to live with what cannot be fixed.