In this episode of the Solo Dad Podcast, Matt sits down with Suzie Schumaker for a deeply honest Solo Mom conversation about love, loss, faith, caregiving, and raising kids after the death of a spouse.

Suzie shares the story of meeting her husband Eric as kids in their Orthodox church community, building a life together, grieving the loss of their first daughter, and later facing Eric’s cancer diagnosis during the isolation and restrictions of COVID. Their story is filled with devotion, humor, faith, hard decisions, and the kind of grit widowed parents often discover only after life gives them no other choice.

This conversation touches on what it means to move forward with grief, not move on from love. Suzie talks about “living in the encore,” helping her daughters process loss through therapy and community, making a major move after Eric’s death, and learning to believe: “I was built for this moment.”

Through the CLIMB lens, this episode lives in Courage, Integration, Movement, and Building—finding the strength to keep going, carrying love forward, making the next right decision, and creating a life where grief and living can both exist.

For widowed parents, solo moms, solo dads, and anyone navigating life after loss, this episode is a reminder: survival counts, your kids need your example, and you are enough.

Ready for more than just listening? Explore the CLIMB framework and support options at https://solodad.life/

This episode of the Solo Dad Podcast is a deeply honest Solo Mom conversation with Alicia, whose story moves through love, marriage, parenting, mental illness, separation, suicide loss, and the reality of raising grieving children after trauma.

Alicia shares what it was like to love a man whose laugh filled the room, while also slowly watching mental illness change the life they were building. She talks about the impossible choices that came with trying to protect her children, the guilt of needing boundaries, the fear of not knowing what would happen next, and the grief that followed after Daniel died by suicide.

This conversation does not offer easy answers because this kind of grief does not come with easy answers. Instead, it offers something more honest: the reality of surviving the unthinkable one decision at a time.

Matt and Alicia also talk about how children grieve differently than adults, why clear language matters when talking to kids about death, the importance of therapy and support, and why “finding the helpers” can become a lifeline when solo parenting feels impossible.

Content note: This episode includes discussion of mental illness, suicidal ideation, firearms, police response, divorce, child grief, and death by suicide.

For more resources, community, and support, visit solodad.life.

Ready for more than just listening? Explore the CLIMB framework and support options at https://solodad.life/

In this deeply moving conversation, Danny Leslie joins Matt to talk about love, loss, solo parenting, and the ways grief changes shape over time.

Danny reflects on the long road of Raf’s cancer, the heartbreak of becoming the one who had to carry impossible news, and what it has looked like to raise their daughters while keeping her presence alive in everyday family rhythm. He shares how writing, walking with a weighted vest, and choosing to “participate with grief” helped him move from hiding in pain to carrying it in a more honest way.

This episode also explores Danny’s book, Thank You, Cancer, a project that brings Raf’s own words into the story so her voice still speaks. Along the way, Matt and Danny talk about anticipatory grief, movement as healing, parenting kids through loss without pretending, and the strange but real shift when grief’s color begins to change.

Danny's Book Is Here: https://bookshop.org/p/books/thank-you-cancer-a-story-of-love-loss-hope-danny-lesslie/5c56725a213acdc6?ean=9798895140369&next=t&aid=120456&listref=guests-of-the-podcast-solo-dad-life

This is a conversation about brutal loss, fierce love, and the quiet ways healing begins — not by getting over someone, but by learning how to carry them with you.

Ready for more than just listening? Explore the CLIMB framework and support options at https://solodad.life/