Holding the Light: Sharing Hope After Child Loss
Holding the Light: Sharing Hope After Child Loss is a podcast for grieving parents, siblings, family and friends navigating life after the loss of a child.
Co-hosted by bereaved mother and her son Monica and Colby Charette, this podcast offers honest conversations about child loss, grief, and healing. Through personal stories, guest interviews, and reflections, we explore what it means to carry and witness grief, find connection, and live with love after unimaginable loss. Whether you are a grieving parent, sibling, family member or supporting someone through child loss and seeking to better understand grief, this podcast provides comfort, validation, and hope.
Topics include:
· living with child loss
· grief after losing a child
· supporting bereaved families
· navigating relationships and family grief
· finding meaning and legacy after loss
We are here to say their name with you. You are not alone. Together, we are Holding the Light.
Episodes
46 episodes
Joyce Vigue-Morrissette: Caregivers Grieve Too
This month on Holding the Light, we welcome Joyce Vigue-Morrissette — a retired nurse who shares what grief looks like from the caregiver’s side of child loss. Joyce called into our Listener Line after hearing Holly Caron's episode "Grief Has N...
Jessica Ashe: When Grief Finds Its Voice
We are joined this month by a fellow bereaved mother who shares how losing her son five years ago reshaped her life, and led her to advocate for change. She is also the current United States of America Mrs. Maine—someone who chose to carry her ...
Holly Caron: Grief Has No Timeline
For any parent listening to this podcast who worries that time hasn’t ‘fixed’ their grief—this conversation is proof that there is no timeline we need to meet. Eighteen years after losing her daughter Heather to brain cancer, Holly Caron ...
Zorimar Bentancourt: Murder Can't Silence A Mother's Love
This episode honors the enduring bond that even murder cannot break. We sit down with Zorimar Betancourt, whose world shattered when her son Stefano was carjacked and murdered while she drove behind him, trying desperately to help him on the ph...
Chris Wilson: A Father's Grief
This episode is dedicated to the fathers who grieve quietly but love loudly. We’re asking what it means to lose a child from a father’s perspective. Chris Wilson is here to bravely share with us the heartbreak of losing his oldest son Andrew in...
Monica Charette: 11 Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me About Child Loss
Oct. 11, 2025 marks the 11th Year since Cassidy died. In this special episode of Holding the Light, I’m here to share 11 things I wish someone had told me about child loss—the truth no one prepares you for, but every grieving parent deserves to...
Aiden Deans: Self-Reflection After Sibling Loss
We’re honored to sit down with Aiden Deans, who at just 12 years old, lost his older brother Austin to an accidental drug overdose. Ten years later, he wants to talk about his experience, both then and now — the grief, sometimes anger, the stig...
Jennifer Oldham: Holding On, Letting Go (Keeping Kindness for Hallie)
Jennifer Oldham lived through a moment no parent ever imagines—when an ordinary day turned tragic, in the blink of an eye. A sudden storm. A fallen tree. And the heartbreaking loss of her daughter, Hallie.In the quiet, in the pain, and i...
Janice Deans: Life Beyond Loss From Overdose
Austin Ashmore's spirit continues to impact the world, long after his life was tragically cut short by an accidental drug overdose. This podcast is the story of a mother’s plea to have others remember her son for how he lived, not how he died. ...
Lena Hann: Living Life More Fully After Child Loss
“It was the worst day of my life, but I’ve always been grateful for having him for 33 years.” Reaching the 10-year milestone since the passing of her 33-year-old son Wayne, Lena is finding solace in helping others embrace their grief jour...
Darlene Sforza: Finding My Purpose Amidst Layered Grief
Losing a child, on it’s own, is more than enough to bear in one lifetime. But imagine losing three brothers before that and witnessing your mother’s unimaginable grief while navigating sibling loss. Then, in a 17-month span, watching both of yo...
Margaret Reilich-Godino: Adolescent Sibling Loss
Sibling relationships often have a unique dynamic, shaped by shared experiences and a deep, sometimes, unspoken bond. Margaret was just 13 when her older sister and best friend Maiah, died in a tragic accident. Adolescent grief can have a profo...
Sarah Kilch Gaffney: Grief Doesn't Take a Holiday
The holidays are here, and for those grieving the loss of someone they love, it can be so challenging. Our guest not only understands this as a grief support facilitator, but also as a widow, who lost her husband in her 20s, while raising their...
Samantha Banerjee: My PUSH for Preventing Stillborn Babies
In 2013 Samantha Banerjee was pregnant with her first child, she lovingly named, Alana. Nearing the end of a textbook pregnancy and just days away from meeting her baby girl, the unthinkable happened. Alana died from stillbirth. And thus began ...
Monica Charette: 10 Things I Have Learned About Grief In 10 Years
October 11, 2024 marks 10 long years since Cassidy died. She would be 27 this year. I never thought I’d still be here, but here I am. Not only have I survived, but I have learned to live again, just differently. I’m living WITH my grief. This e...
Vicki Roy: My Brother Was More Than a Victim of a Mass Shooting
**This conversation includes references to violence, including experiences of a mass shooting, traumatic grief, and other details unsuitable for young children. This recording is prohibited from being copied or reproduced without permission.***...
Sandy Fisher: If I Knew Then What I Know Now (Loss By Suicide)
There is something to be said about a mother’s intuition. Sandy Fisher knew something was wrong the day her 18-year-old son, Scott Junior, died by suicide. He had just entered college. Now, after 18 years of grieving his loss, and even an attem...
Rob Reider: The Sad Dads Club
Navigating life after child loss is hard enough without the gender-based stereotype that men must somehow be strong and overcome their grief. After the devastating loss of his daughter Lila to stillbirth, Rob Reider has created a space to he...
Mary Alexandre: Balancing Grief with Joy
When your child dies, it’s so hard to accept that every part of their existence is no longer possible. Mary Alexandra felt this deeply after her daughter Celina died, as life, inevitably, moves forward. This kind of grief, never goes away. But ...
Julie Brown: Writing and My Grief Evolution
When faced with the possibility that her 34-year-old daughter Jessica might die from brain cancer, Julie Brown turned to her writing for solace, which, she says, has become part of her evolution. After Jessica’s passing, this caregiving and cou...
Susan Cloutier: Surviving the Loss of My Son and Husband
When a horrific car accident suddenly claimed the lives of her teenage son Casey, and her husband Gus, Susan Cloutier had to dig deep to want to keep living. She shares her story of losing half of her family in an instant, parenting her angr...
Debbie Reynolds: Living After the Loss of My Children
While Debbie Reynolds would not, and should not, ever say she is childless, she is now navigating a life without her only two children, Michelle and Matthew. How does a parent even begin to process the death of their young daughter, whi...
Annette McCoy: Coming to Terms with Suicide
Suicide without warning is more common than we might think. Which is why Annette McCoy will never stop asking herself, “how did I not know?” Sometimes, even after years of searching, the answers just aren’t there. Instead of focusing on h...
Dawn Prime Watson: Surviving My Son's Suicide Without Blame
Every day Dawn carries her heavy grief, alongside endless love for her son Krys, but she never carries the guilt or responsibility that often plague parents of child loss to suicide. In this podcast, this brave Mom candidly shares how the demon...
Cidny Bullens: As Long As You Love (A special interview with our podcast theme song singer-songwriter, and fellow parent of child loss)
In a very special interview, Colby and I had the complete joy and honor of talking with Cidny Bullens, a Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter, who is known for being a backup vocalist for Elton John, singing lead vocals on the Grease soundtrack, ...