For years, Tina Erwin's question was whether she could trust the experiences she couldn't explain. Then her six-year-old niece Ariana died—and the question changed.

In Part Two, Tina recounts the phone call that changed her family, the grief that followed, and the extraordinary experiences she says began unfolding after Ariana's death. As Tina and her family learn how to live with loss, neighbors, grieving families, and eventually strangers begin entering the story. What had once felt deeply personal becomes, for Tina, a question of responsibility: If you believe you have the ability to help someone, what are you supposed to do with it?

This documentary explores grief after the loss of a child, family, spiritual belief, unresolved grief, purpose, love, and service without asking listeners to share Tina's beliefs. At its center is a human question almost anyone can recognize: how do we keep living—and keep showing up for one another—after someone we love is gone?

Tina also shares the experiences that led her to write about grief, create what she calls the Crossing Over Prayer, and describe the years after her Navy career as a life of spiritual service.

Content note: This episode includes discussion of the sudden death of a child and grief.

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Tina Erwin built her life around discipline, responsibility, and facts. But long before she understood what it meant, moments of instinct—and eventually a voice she couldn't explain—kept appearing when the stakes were highest.

In Part One of this two-part story, Tina looks back on coming of age during the Vietnam era, surviving dangerous experiences in Central and South America, challenging authority when her instincts told her something was wrong, and building a career in the U.S. Navy at a time when women were still pushing through barriers inside the service. Through it all, one question quietly follows her: When something inside you says pay attention, how do you know when to trust it?

This is not a story about proving the paranormal. It's a story about intuition, leadership, responsibility, women in the military, and the experiences that slowly changed the way Tina understood herself.

Tina Erwin is a retired U.S. Navy officer and author whose later work explores grief, spiritual experiences, and what she describes as service to both the living and the dead.

Listen to Part One of Tina's story, then follow Change Happened, Then What? so you don't miss the conclusion.

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Generational trauma, generational healing, mindfulness, and Generation Alpha come together in Part Two of Queen’s story.

After tracing her maternal ancestry to the Fula people of Guinea-Bissau, Queen began thinking differently about what families carry from one generation to the next. Her belief is simple but powerful: if trauma can travel through a bloodline, healing can move through it, too.

But for Queen, looking backward is only part of the story.

Her attention turns toward the generation coming next.

Drawing on 27 years as an educator, Queen created 52 Insights for Gen Alpha: A Conscious Curriculum, designed to help young people develop self-awareness, mindfulness, relationship skills, social awareness, and conscious decision-making in a world that has been digital since the day they were born.

In Part Two, Queen talks about returning home to care for her parents, losing them within ten months of each other, reconnecting with her ancestry, and how those experiences eventually became connected to her work with children.

Because perhaps healing what came before us also changes what we hand to those who come after.

Topics include: generational trauma, generational healing, Generation Alpha, mindfulness for children, social emotional learning, ancestry, caregiving, conscious parenting, education, emotional intelligence, family patterns, and breaking generational cycles.

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Sometimes peace doesn't come from having answers.

Sometimes it comes from wonder.

In this Smile Drop, Heather Holt reflects on humanity's quiet relationship with mystery—the things we cannot explain, cannot measure, and cannot always see. From porch lights glowing in the distance to moments of intuition, faith, coincidence, and connection, this episode explores why wonder may be one of the most important parts of being human.

Inspired by this week's documentary conversation with Tina Erwin, Heather considers the role that curiosity, spirituality, and faith play in helping us navigate grief, uncertainty, and the unknown.

This isn't an episode about proving anything.

It's about leaving space for possibility.

For questions.

For mystery.

For the things that bring us comfort when certainty isn't available.

A thoughtful pause about wonder, faith, intuition, spirituality, human connection, and the invisible threads that shape our lives.

• Why humans are naturally drawn to wonder
• The connection between faith and uncertainty
• Intuition, spirituality, and the unseen world
• Finding peace without needing all the answers
• The role of mystery in grief, healing, and everyday life

Sometimes the most meaningful things in life can't be seen at all.

We often think mothers carry groceries, diaper bags, lunch boxes, and endless to-do lists.

But what if they're carrying something else too?

In this Smile Drop, Heather reflects on the invisible things passed through generations. The stories. The fears. The resilience. The sacrifices. The healing.

Inspired by the themes explored in Queen D. Michele's documentary episode, this gentle reflection considers how family history travels through us, how trauma can echo across generations, and how healing can move forward just as powerfully.

From kitchens and childhood memories to mothers, daughters, and the ordinary moments that shape us, this episode explores the quiet ways we inherit more than we realize.

Because sometimes the things we carry aren't in our hands.

They're in our hearts.

If you're trying to understand where you came from—or hoping to create a different path for those who come after you—this Smile Drop is for you.

Topics include: • Generational trauma • Family history • Motherhood • Healing • Personal growth • Emotional resilience • Identity • Generational healing

Some of the things my grandparents used to say made absolutely no sense when I was younger.

"Turn off the lights."

"Shut the refrigerator door."

"Use it up."

"Wear it out."

And then somewhere along the way, they started making perfect sense.

In this Smile Drop, Heather reflects on growing older, listening differently, and realizing that the stories our grandparents told weren't just stories at all. They were pieces of history, survival, resilience, and everyday wisdom passed from one generation to the next.

Inspired by this week's conversation with 92-year-old Jim Paulk, this episode explores old kitchens, family memories, military generations, and the realization that every older person carries an entire library of stories inside them.

A quiet reflection about growing up, looking back, and finding meaning in words you once rolled your eyes at.

After 27 years of teaching, Queen D. Michele looked at her first pension check and realized retirement wasn't going to give her the freedom she expected.

So she chose something different.

Queen left Atlanta and moved alone to Mexico, where stepping outside the life she had known created enough quiet to finally meet herself. Books followed. Spiritual work followed. Then a phone call brought her home to Detroit, where she became the full-time caregiver for her aging parents.

After losing both parents within ten months, Queen boarded a plane carrying her mother's memory with her.

Seventeen days after laying her mother to rest, she began a journey to Guinea-Bissau, West Africa, where DNA testing had traced her maternal ancestry to the Fula people.

On her 60th birthday, Queen stepped into her ancestral village.

For her, she wasn't returning alone.

In Part One of Queen D. Michele's story, we explore retirement, caregiving, grief, African ancestry, the search for belonging, and Queen's deeply personal understanding of generational trauma and healing.

Because sometimes understanding what we carry begins by discovering where it came from.

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For most of his life, Jim Paulk has been known as a storyteller.

But when he reflects on his own ninety-two years, he doesn't begin with achievements.

He begins with people.

In Part Two, Jim shares the philosophy that quietly shaped his remarkable life: that nothing truly meaningful is accomplished alone. From leading conservation efforts in California and building artificial reefs to writing books that preserve the stories of others, every chapter leads back to relationships.

He remembers the wife he still speaks to every day.

The grandchildren who continue her legacy.

The friends who opened unexpected doors.

And one unforgettable story about a premature baby whose life was saved because ordinary people chose compassion over certainty.

As Jim looks back, he doesn't measure success by titles or accomplishments. He measures it by the people who stood beside him, the lives that intertwined with his own, and the stories worth carrying forward.

This is Part Two of a two-part documentary about relationships, love, legacy, and discovering that the people in our lives become part of our own story.

In this episode:

• Why Jim believes nothing meaningful is accomplished alone
• Life after the Navy and Procter & Gamble
• Marine conservation and saying "yes" to unexpected opportunities
• The lasting love of Pat
• The story of "Baby in a Basket"
• Why relationships became Jim's greatest legacy
• Finding purpose in telling other people's stories