The Widow Podcast

In this episode of The Widow Podcast, I'm joined by Rosie Moss, host of the Widowed AF podcast and author of Widowed AF: A Guidebook for Grieving Your Partner.

Rosie's husband Ben died in a diving accident in 2018, when she was 37 and their three children were very young. His body was never found. Rosie talks about the day he went out to dive, the knock at the door that evening, and the decision she made that first night to tell her children he had died, rather than that he was missing.

What followed was a grief with no body and no certainty: a funeral without a coffin, the practical fallout of a sudden death, and the long process of having Ben legally declared dead.

We discuss:

• Choosing the word died from the very beginning, and why it mattered for her children
• What it is to grieve without a body or any answers
• Keeping Ben present in family life in small, everyday ways
• Finding love again in early grief, and what losing that stirred up
• What changed when she got sober, and the grief that was still waiting
• What she has learned from nearly 200 conversations about loss

Rosie tells a very hard story with enormous warmth and honesty. If your person died without warning, I think this one will steady you.

For More Support:

The Widows Membership: karensutton.co.uk/the-widow-membership

Coaching and retreats: karensutton.co.uk

It's just me again, following on from my last episode where I shared what I've learnt about grief. There was so much that I tried to cram it all into that one episode, and realised that I couldn't. And as I tried to separate it out, what came to me was that a lot of it wasn't about grief at all. It was about life.
Some of the things I want to share with you might feel a little bit uncomfortable, especially if you are in the very early raw days of your grief, and I say that with so much love. You don't have to think the way I think. My way is not the right way, this is just my way, this is just where I've got to, and if yours is different, I love that for you.
I talk about:
• Simon died and it was horrendous. I did not. I was still alive, and I didn't want two people's lives to end because one person died
• Believing at 39 that I was too old to start a new career or make anything of myself, and why I'm determined to make my 50s the best decade of my life
• Nobody is coming to save us, and there is no white shining knight on a horse who is going to make everything magically better
• Why having to do it for yourself does not mean that you have to do it by yourself
• You have so much more within you than you could ever dream possible
• Our lives will be as good as we allow them to be, and the ceiling we put on them without realising
• Love is not finite, and your heart will expand to the depth that you allow it to expand
• Don't compare the life that you have now with an imaginary future
• The thing I find most difficult to say out loud: that I have stopped wishing my life were different

For More Support:
The Widows Membership: karensutton.co.uk/the-widow-membership
Coaching and retreats: karensutton.co.uk

I'm so excited to be back. It has been nearly a year since I recorded an episode of The Widow Podcast and I've really missed it.

This one goes out in the week of Simon's tenth anniversary. So I wanted to share what I've come to believe. Not because I have all the answers, not because I've figured it all out, not because my life is perfect. My mission has always been about helping people feel less alone in their grief, and helping people to find hope.

I talk about:

• Why what I believe is that love lasts forever, rather than grief lasts forever
• Why the depth and the length of your pain are not a reflection of the depth and the length of your love
• Stop trying to get grief right, because there is no right way of doing this
• Befriending your grief, when grief has this reputation of being an enemy
• Why time alone does not heal your grief and your wounds: it creates space and distance, but you will not heal with time alone
• Please don't mistake growth for betrayal
• Learning that not every hard feeling belongs in the grief bucket
• There is a life out there that you cannot see, that you cannot imagine, but is absolutely available to you

For More Support:

The Widows Membership: karensutton.co.uk/the-widow-membership

Coaching and retreats: karensutton.co.uk

In this final episode of season four, I take some time to reflect on the journey we’ve been on together and what this season has taught me about healing after loss.

Over the past few months I’ve spoken to so many incredible people who’ve shared their stories with such honesty and courage. I’ve also had my own moments of reflection, especially as I reach ten years since Simon died. My connection with him continues to evolve in beautiful ways, and I’ve come to understand that healing isn’t about moving on but about going deeper into ourselves, into life, and into love.

I talk about what I’ve learned through this year’s grief retreats at Tofte Manor, the extraordinary women I’ve met, and a powerful moment of truth that reminded me how gratitude and growth can exist within grief. I share why I believe that life after loss can hold meaning, joy and purpose again, and how the gifts that come from our pain can become the foundation for a new and peaceful chapter.

We explore:

What it really means to go deeper into healing

How community and shared stories help us feel less alone

The evolving connection we have with the people we’ve lost

Why transformation and gratitude are key to long-term healing

The lessons from Toft Manor and the courage to speak our truth

How joy, love and grief can all coexist

For More Support:

The Widows Membership: karensutton.co.uk/the-widow-membership

Coaching and retreats: karensutton.co.uk

In this episode of The Widow Podcast, I'm joined by Debbie Dawson, mentor, retreat supporter and treasured community member, to talk about life beyond loss and what it truly means to live fully again after grief.

Debbie shares her widow journey from joining the community in 2020, two and a half years after losing her husband suddenly in 2018, to where she is now, seven years on and living with a sense of freedom, purpose and excitement about the future she never thought possible. We explore how the shift from grief work to life work happened through Vibrant Living and the transformative Rise and Renew retreat, and why discovering hidden parts of yourself after loss can be both surprising and liberating.



We discuss:



The transition from surviving to thriving and living fully after widowhood

How Vibrant Living and Rise and Renew created profound shifts in healing

Discovering that it's a new connection with yourself, not just reconnection

Moving from "second best life" to "my best life" as a widow

Living with conscious intent and presence after losing your partner

Why grief and life journeys become intertwined rather than separate

The power of widow community, energy and being under one roof

Finding permission to live without fear of the future

Building trust in your inner compass after loss

Creating a legacy you're proud of



It's an uplifting conversation about transformation, self-discovery, rebuilding after loss, and the beautiful truth that anything is possible when you're ready to do the work.



For More Support:

The Widows Membership: karensutton.co.uk/the-widow-membership

Coaching and retreats: karensutton.co.uk