Christmas can intensify grief in ways you don’t expect. For many people, the festive season brings memories, longing, and a deep sense of absence - especially if you’re facing your first Christmas without someone you love.

In this solo episode of Life’s Too Short, I talk honestly about Christmas grief and what it’s really like to cope with loss during the holidays. I share a personal story about the first time I heard a Christmas song after my mum died, how grief can surface suddenly, and how this season can feel isolating when the world expects joy.

This episode explores:

• why grief often feels heavier at Christmas
• the emotional complexity of the festive season after loss
• how to survive your first Christmas without a loved one
• permission to lower expectations and opt out of traditions
• how joy and grief can exist together over time

Whether you’re grieving a parent, partner, child, or someone deeply important to you, this episode is for anyone trying to get through Christmas while carrying loss.

You can find me on Instagram @lifestooshortpodcast, where I share updates, reflections and details about upcoming episodes. I’ll be taking a short break over the Christmas period to rest and be with my family, but new episodes will be back in the new year. Thank you so much for listening, sharing, and holding space for these conversations.

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This week’s episode is one I’ll carry with me for a long, long time.

Marina joined me to talk about a different kind of grief - the grief that comes before loss. The kind that lives inside uncertainty, scans, treatments, watching your child grow, and holding both hope and heartbreak in the same breath.

At 34, Marina was living her dream life in the west of Ireland - painting, teaching, growing a garden, building a future with her husband. Then came a diagnosis that changed everything: ALK-positive lung cancer. A disease she never imagined could happen to her, and one that is, for now, incurable.

In this conversation, Marina speaks with honesty, clarity and unbelievable strength about:

• the shock of diagnosis

• the years of treatment that followed

• becoming a mother after cancer

• parenting through uncertainty

• anticipatory grief

• the everyday beauty she holds onto

• and the spiritual grounding that keeps her going

I’m so grateful Marina trusted this space with her story. It’s emotional, it’s human, it’s real, and it will stay with you.

If you or someone you love is navigating cancer, or the uncertainty of life-limiting illness, there is support, community, and advocacy happening every single day. I’ve linked to Marina’s work and the Marie Keating Foundation below.

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marinawild_art/
• Website & Artwork: https://www.marinawild.com/

• Support, information & resources: https://www.mariekeating.ie
• Lung cancer awareness & advocacy: https://www.mariekeating.ie/cancer-information/lung-cancer/

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In today’s episode, I’m joined by Annabelle Reynolds for an incredibly honest conversation about complex grief - the kind of grief we don’t often talk about publicly.

Annabelle shares the story of her father, a deeply kind and vibrant man whose life changed dramatically after the 2008 recession. Over the years, addiction, shame, and difficult family dynamics reshaped their relationship long before his death from esophageal cancer in 2019.

We talk about:

• What it’s like to “lose” a parent many times before they physically die
• Anger, rage, jealousy, and the emotions society rarely associates with grief
• Growing up fast and becoming the caretaker long before adulthood
• Navigating addiction, family fractures, and grief that doesn’t fit the traditional mould
• The first year after loss, anticipatory grief, and building a toolbox to survive it
• Healing as sisters, spirituality, signs, humour, and the messy truth of moving forward

This is the first time Annabelle has shared her story in full, and it’s a conversation I know will resonate deeply with anyone who has experienced complicated loss - or ever wondered whether their version of grief is “normal.”

A gentle content note: this episode includes discussion of addiction, self-harm, and complex family trauma.

If this episode meant something to you, please follow the show, leave a review, or share it with someone who might feel a little less alone hearing it. That’s how our community grows.

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In this solo episode, I reflect on the idea of signs; the small, sometimes strange ways we feel our loved ones near after they’re gone.

A song on the radio. A robin in the garden. A moment that feels too precise to be coincidence.

Why do we look for them? What do they mean? And do they actually matter, or is the meaning in how they make us feel?

Through honest reflection and gentle storytelling, I'm exploring how grief sharpens our awareness of the world around us, how comfort doesn’t always need proof, and why believing (or not believing) in signs can both be okay.

If you’ve ever asked yourself, “Was that them?”, this episode is for you.

🎧 Listen to more episodes of Life’s Too Short wherever you get your podcasts.

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💬 Leave a rating or review, it helps others find these conversations.

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In this week’s episode of Life’s Too Short, I speak with Morgan Cummins; an executive coach and recruiter who lost his dad suddenly more than 20 years ago. What began as an unimaginable shock became, over time, one of his greatest teachers.

We talk about what it means to live with loss, how grief can reappear in the body years later, and how to let go of anger without letting go of love. Morgan shares his path from anxiety to spirituality, the lessons he’s carried into fatherhood, and how the death of his dad reshaped his definition of success, legacy, and peace.

It’s a grounded, generous conversation about what loss can show us, if we let it.

🎧 Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts.

Find Morgan on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/morgancummins12/

💬 Join the conversation

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Substack → https://lifestooshort.substack.com

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In this solo episode, I explore one of the hardest questions we face after loss, will it always hurt this much?

When someone dies, people often say that time heals. But the truth is, time doesn’t erase grief, it just changes our relationship with it. The pain softens, reshapes, hides in quieter moments. Sometimes it returns without warning.

I'm speaking honestly about how grief evolves, how we learn to carry it differently, and why joy doesn’t mean forgetting.

This episode is for anyone who’s still in that in-between space; not where they were, not fully okay either, but finding a way forward.

🎧 Subscribe to Life’s Too Short wherever you get your podcasts.

❤️ If this episode stayed with you, please consider leaving a review, it helps others find these conversations.

🔗 Follow on Instagram: @lifestooshortpodcast

📰 Join the Substack community: lifestooshort.substack.com

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This episode looks at the version of you that disappears when someone you love dies.

The humour, confidence, or calm they brought out in you - gone with them, at least for a while. It’s about who we were in their presence, and how to reconnect with that person again, even after they’re gone.

If this episode resonates, share it with someone who might need it - or join the conversation on Substack or Instagram @lifestooshortpodcast

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In this episode of Life’s Too Short, I’m joined by Mark Legge, who shares his story of love, loss, and how grief continues to shape his life.

We talk about fatherhood, the way grief changes how you see yourself, and the difficult truths you only discover when the life you imagined disappears. Mark’s honesty is both raw and grounding - a reminder that there is no one way to grieve, and no timeline for how it unfolds.

Mark is also the founder of The Solace, a grief community that offers space, resources, and connection for those living with loss. His work is a continuation of his own journey, helping others find comfort and meaning in the aftermath of loss.

If you’ve ever wondered what it looks like to live with grief and still find purpose, this conversation is for you.

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