Coffee, Grief, And Gratitude

In this episode Phillipa Leseberg reads from her new memoir: HIS NAME IS ERIC: a book that records her love story with her beloved husband Eric who died from cancer. It’s a love story, a story of resilience and advocacy, and so much more. 

Phillipa shares how through Eric’s illness and death, her concept of grief expanded. Grief started when Eric’s health first declined. Eric grieved his loss of work. Phillipa grieved the loss of h...

Becky Ellis shares about her dad’s experience as a Timberwolf in World War II and how that impacted him, then later her and the rest of their family. With her father sharing his story, she gained a deep understanding of who her father was. She was able to see him separate from her needs and desires. Becky says this uncovering was the “greatest moment of joy, the deepest moment of grief.” At 50, she finally got to see her dad for wh...

We’re delighted to bring you our recent Coffee Talk #69 from May 2025. This is a special Coffee Talk, honoring Monica Welty’s son, Harvey who died as a newborn. We hope these five phenomenal writers/readers/humans and their stories are just what your heart needs today. We bring you Becca Lynne, Jennifer Lynn, Katie Dominguez, Rebecca Mendez, and Virag Tunya. Enjoy!

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Coffee, Grief and Gratitu...

Season Two Episode Twenty-one

Play On With Kevin O’Connor

In this open-hearted conversation Kevin O’Connor tells us how he was born into grief. He came home as a newborn to an apartment above a funeral home. Living with death was always part of his life as his dad and uncle were undertakers and owners of a funeral home. He shares how his family supported others in grief. Sometimes he’d be a pallbearer for someone who didn’t have fam...

We’re delighted to bring you our recent Coffee Talk #68 from April 2025. We hope these five phenomenal writers/readers/humans and their stories are just what your heart needs today. We bring you Annie Carl, Jen Violi, Nikki Darling, Nynke Salverda Passi, and Mary Mandeville. Enjoy!

Thank you for letting us be in your ears.

Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is created by Anne Gudger and Maria Gibson, a mom/daughter duo who talk about gr...

Grab your coffee and come listen to this tender conversation with Shara Ruffin who talks about becoming comfortable with grief being part of life. She tells us some of the rituals she’s made part of her life since her daughter died and her mom-in-law too. She shares how important ritual is to stay connected to her beloveds. As a griever, as a human, she holds the fragility of life, embraces that grief is a process you engage with d...

We’re delighted to bring you Coffee Talk #44 from March 2023. We hope these five phenomenal writers/readers/humans and their stories are just what your heart needs today. We bring you Carmel Breathnach, Jason Arias, Jessica Rich, Jill Deasy, and Rebecca Daniels. Enjoy! 

Thank you for letting us be in your ears.

Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is created by Anne Gudger and Maria Gibson, a mom/daughter duo who talk about grief. 

You can ...

Pamela reads her essay that she says is partially the eulogy she should have written/shared about her father and didn’t. She braids some sweet childhood memories with her last memories of her dad. In moving through her grief, she tells us: “The rough emotions have taken a back seat to the good ones.” And her message to her younger self is to “accept each step of it. You don’t know the steps. And however you’re feeling, it’s all oka...

We’re delighted to bring you Coffee Talk #43 from February 2023. We hope these four phenomenal writers/readers/humans and their stories are just what your heart needs today. We bring you Amy Kortuem, Annie Gudger, Gayle Brandeis, and  MJ Atamian. Enjoy! 

Thank you for letting us be in your ears.

Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is created by Anne Gudger and Maria Gibson, a mom/daughter duo who talk about grief. 

You can find them on Face...

Casey reads from her gorgeous new memoir: The Full Catastrophe: All I Ever Wanted, Everything I Feared. She talks about her many griefs that could have undone her, and how, while we can never be prepared for major loss, her early experiences with loss helped carry her through later ones. She shares how she’s grown through grief. Her compassion for herself and others shines through our entire conversation. 

Casey Mulligan Walsh wri...

We’re delighted to bring you Coffee Talk #46 from May 2023. It’s a special reading, honoring Harvey, Monica’s infant son who died days after he was born. We’re honored to support Monica in these yearly readings, to keep talking about Harvey who has touched so many lives. We hope these five phenomenal writers/readers/humans and their stories are just what your heart needs today. We bring you:  Anat LeBlanc, Anne Richardson, Blix Avi...

Season Two Episode Thirteen

Pedaling Hard with Ronit Plank

Ronit Plank reads from her fabulous memoir: WHEN SHE COMES BACK and talks about her grief of losing her mom, her family, and her sense of self. She shares gems about writing memoir along with talking about how all of her family relationships have evolved, how healing has come through writing and having honest conversations. She reminds us all that “your story matters.” 

Ron...

We’re delighted to bring you Coffee Talk #67 from March 2025. We hope these four phenomenal writers/readers/humans and their stories are just what your heart needs today. If you missed the live Coffee Talk, if you’d like to hear their voices again, we bring you Christie Tate, Gina Moffa, Jing Jing Tsong, Natalie Hirt and Tanya Friedman. Enjoy!

Thank you for letting us be in your ears.

Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is a created by Anne...

In this episode Jenny Leon talks about being a cancer survivor while two of her children were very young. She was diagnosed with breast cancer when he was 33 weeks pregnant with her daughter, and had chemo until her daughter was nine months old. She’s since gone on to support others in their grief around cancer. She gifts others with her time, her understanding, her kindness. 

Jenny talks about the grief of time lost, the grief of ...

We’re delighted to bring you Coffee Talk #63 from November 2024. We hope these four phenomenal writers/readers/humans and their stories are just what your heart needs today. If you missed the live Coffee Talk, if you’d like to hear their voices again, we bring you Jessica Fein, Lanette Smith, Becky Ellis, and Laurie Easter. Enjoy!

Thank you for letting us be in your ears.

Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is a created by Anne Gudger and M...

Season Two Episode Nine

Loving the Dying with Jennifer Bedford

Jennifer reads a beautiful piece about her dog’s death, her mom’s death,  and a paramedic who showed up at the scene of the car accident where her beloved dog, Leo, died a week after her mom died. She shares her experiences of being with the dying and how she’s learned to embrace death, to see the beauty. She also gives practical tips to help survivors, to take much of...

We’re delighted to bring you Coffee Talk #60 from July 2024. July’s reading highlighted five contributors to the beautiful collection DARING TO BREATHE:Stories of Living with the Foreverness of Grief, edited by Armen Bacon and Nancy Miller. We hope these five phenomenal writers/readers/humans and their stories are just what your heart needs today. If you missed the live Coffee Talk, if you’d like to hear their voices again, we brin...

Eileen Vorbach Collins shares about suicide loss, how a close friendship buoyed her during her hardest grief time, her up-close experience with hospice, and her strong feelings about long term grief being labeled a disorder. She tells us: “If we’re normalizing grief, we can’t call it a disorder.” Brava, Eileen. Brava. 

Eileen Vorbach Collins writes true stories she wishes were fiction and fairy tales she wishes were true. She&#...

We’re delighted to bring you Coffee Talk #61 from September 2024. We hope these five phenomenal writers/readers/humans and their stories are just what your heart needs today. If you missed the live Coffee Talk, if you’d like to hear their voices again, we bring you Kelly James, Casey Mulligan Walsh, Jessica Thomas, Pamela Kripke, and Lita Kurth. Enjoy!

Thank you for letting us be in your ears.

Coffee, Grief and Gratitude is a create...