One of the biggest fears many widowed parents carry after the death of a spouse is this:

"Will my child be ruined by this?"

When your child loses a parent, it's natural to worry about what this loss will mean for them long-term. Who will they become because of this experience? What will they carry forward? How do you help them navigate something so enormous while you're grieving too?

In this final episode of Season 1, I sit down with grief specialist, Certified Child Life Specialist, author, and bereaved mother Jessica Correnti to have an honest conversation about parenting through grief after the death of a spouse.

Together, they explore the fears grieving parents carry, what children actually need after loss, how grief shows up differently in children, and why parents don't need to be perfect to support their child well.

In This Episode, We Discuss:

• Why so many widowed parents fear their child will be permanently damaged by the loss
• The most common worries grieving parents carry after the death of a spouse
• Whether it's okay for children to see a parent cry and grieve
• The difference between healthy emotional expression and emotional overwhelm
• What emotional repair looks like when difficult moments happen
• How children regain a sense of safety after loss
• What children need most from the surviving parent
• How children grieve differently from adults and from one another
• Supporting children with different grief styles
• Common misconceptions about grief in children
• Signs a child may benefit from additional support
• Helpful grief resources and therapeutic approaches for children
• What every widowed parent deserves to know about navigating grief with their child

About Jessica Correnti

Jessica Correnti is a Certified Child Life Specialist, grief specialist, author, educator, and bereaved mother with nearly two decades of experience supporting children and families through illness, trauma, and loss.

After years working in pediatric hospital settings, Jessica founded Kids Grief Support, where she provides grief education, resources, and support to families around the world. She is the author of several children's grief books, including The ABCs of Grief series and Forever Connected. Her work has been featured in Oprah Daily, People Magazine, CNBC, and other national publications.

Connect with Jessica

Website: Kidsgriefsupport

Instagram: @kidsgriefsupport

Books: The ABCs of Grief & Forever Connected

A Final Reflection

If you're a widowed parent carrying the fear that you're somehow "messing this up," this episode is for you.

Your child does not need a perfect grieving parent.

They need a connected one.

Someone who keeps showing up.
Someone who repairs when needed.
Someone who makes space for feelings.
Someone who continues loving them through the hardest season of their lives.

And that may be far more powerful than you realize.

Thank you for being part of Season 1 of The Widow's Collective.

Big hugs and lots of love,

Lauren

After the death of a spouse, many widows don’t just lose the person they love — they also lose their sense of safety, predictability, and trust in themselves.

In this episode, we explore the invisible ways grief impacts self-trust and why loss can leave widows feeling hypervigilant, emotionally unsteady, fearful of future pain, and disconnected from their own inner voice.

We discuss:

• Why widowhood disrupts your relationship with safety and certainty
• The nervous system’s response to trauma & loss
• Hypervigilance, overthinking, and emotional preparedness after grief
• Fear of future loss, attachment, and vulnerability
• The impact grief can have on parenting fears and emotional safety
• Why grief can make it difficult to trust your emotions
• The quiet ways self-trust slowly begins rebuilding over time
• Learning to stay connected to yourself inside uncertainty

This episode is a compassionate conversation for the widow who feels exhausted from carrying fear, second-guessing herself, or wondering why she can no longer trust herself as she did before.

Big hugs, and lots of love.
-Lauren

To Connect With Me

Follow along on Instagram: @imsorrywerefriends

For More Information About Support
Head over to: LaurenLentz.com
Or
Book a free Discovery Call by emailing me: lauren@imsorrywerefriends.com

So many grieving women quietly carry the pressure to do widowhood “correctly.”

To cope correctly.
To heal correctly.
To move forward correctly.
To parent correctly.
To honor their person correctly.

But grief is not a performance.
And widowhood is not something you master perfectly.

In this episode, we explore the invisible expectations many widows carry after the death of a spouse — the pressure to stay strong, stay productive, appear functional, and somehow navigate profound loss in a way that feels acceptable to both themselves and the outside world.

We discuss:
• Why so many grieving people monitor and judge themselves after loss
• How conditioning around emotions and productivity impacts widowhood
• The nervous system’s search for safety after trauma and uncertainty
• Why grief feels so contradictory and emotionally unpredictable
• The hidden exhaustion behind “high functioning” grief
• The quiet ways comparison and self-measurement show up in widowhood
• Why functioning does not mean someone is okay
• The difference between survival mode and healing
• Why grief resurfaces in waves — even years later
• Releasing the pressure to carry grief perfectly

This episode is a reminder that there is no gold star for grieving “well.”

There is no perfect timeline.
No perfectly measured way to heal.
No flawless way to carry profound loss.

There is only your way.

And maybe part of healing is learning how to meet yourself with more gentleness while living inside a life that changed everything.

If this episode resonated with you, please share it with another widow who may need this reminder today.

With love,
Lauren

To Connect With Me

Follow along on Instagram: @imsorrywerefriends

For More Information About Support
Head over to: LaurenLentz.com
Or
Book a free Discovery Call by emailing me: lauren@imsorrywerefriends.com

In this final episode of the identity loss series, we explore one of the most tender and complicated parts of grief after the death of a partner:

The experience of feeling like certain parts of you only existed because they did… while also slowly realizing that there are still parts of you that remain.

This conversation moves into the layered complexity of relational identity, nervous system connection, emotional safety, and the internal conflict many widows experience when they begin noticing themselves still “here” after profound loss.

Together, we unpack:

• Why certain relationships bring specific versions of us forward
• The grief of losing not only your person, but the version of yourself that existed alongside them
• Why it can feel confronting when others say “you’re still in there”
• The difference between the relationally-activated self and the core self
• Why identity disruption after loss can feel like an identity rupture
• The emotional tension of holding contradictory truths at the same time
• What it means to re-encounter yourself over time
• How identity reorganizes through grief
• Becoming without erasing the person you were with your partner

This episode is not about “finding yourself again.”

It’s about learning how to stay in relationship with yourself through the complexity of grief, change, memory, love, and becoming.

If this episode brought something up for you, please know there is nothing you need to resolve quickly.

You are allowed to grieve what was shaped in love… while also allowing space for what is still unfolding inside of you.

Big Hugs and Lots of Love,

Lauren

Connect with Me

Instagram: @imsorrywerefriends
1:1 Coaching + Programs: laurenlentz.com
To schedule a Discovery Call, email me at lauren@imsorrywerefriends.com

Mother’s Day after the death of a spouse is not a simple day.

It is layered.
It is emotional.
It is often holding multiple truths at once.

In this bonus episode, we talk about what it actually means to move through Mother’s Day as a widow and a mother — where love and grief are not separate experiences, but happening side by side.

We explore:

• The emotional complexity of Mother’s Day after loss
• Why this day can feel both tender and heavy at the same time
• The missing presence of the person who once witnessed and celebrated your motherhood
• How grief reshapes identity and capacity in motherhood
• The lived reality of becoming both mother and father after loss
• The exhaustion of holding emotional, mental, and logistical responsibility alone
• The desire to retreat from a day that feels overwhelming
• What it can feel like to show up for your children while in survival
• The guilt and fear that can surface around “not being enough” as a mother in grief
• Why attachment, repair, and presence matter more than perfection
• Permission to let Mother’s Day be what it actually is this year, without forcing it into something it’s not

This episode is not about doing Mother’s Day “right.”

It’s about naming what it actually feels like when you are mothering inside profound loss, and offering space for all of it to exist without judgment.

If this resonates, you can share it with someone who may need it, or leave a review to help this work reach more grieving widowed mothers who are walking through something similar.

Thank you for being here.

Love,

Lauren

In this episode, we take a deeper look at what it actually means to live inside identity loss after the death of a spouse.

Because while grief is often talked about in terms of emotion—what you feel, how you process, how you “move through it”—there is another layer that doesn’t get named as often.

The internal shift.

The part where you don’t quite recognize yourself.
Where the way you think, respond, decide, and move through the world feels different. Where the version of you that once felt familiar… no longer feels fully accessible.

And at the same time, the outside world hasn’t necessarily adjusted to that change.

So this episode explores the tension that can exist between those two realities.

We talk about:

• Why the idea of “going back to normal” doesn’t actually apply after this kind of loss
• How the expectation to return to a familiar version of yourself can create internal pressure
• What it can feel like to “fake it” or wear a mask in everyday interactions
• The subtle ways you may be adjusting yourself just to make connection feel possible
• How grief can begin to impact your relationships—not because you don’t care, but because your internal world has changed
• The experience of social disconnection and the kind of loneliness that can exist even when you’re not physically alone
• Why well-meaning support can sometimes feel misaligned or hard to receive
• The reality that not all relationships will shift in the same way—and what that means
• Why “normal” can feel out of reach, not because you’re doing something wrong, but because the structure that created it is no longer there

If you found yourself in this conversation—if parts of this felt familiar or hard in a way you couldn’t quite name before—you are not alone in that.

If this episode resonated, you can share it with someone who may need it, or leave a review so this space can reach more women who are walking through something similar.

I’m really glad you’re here.

Ways to Connect & Continue the Work:

If you’re looking for support as you navigate your grief, there are a few ways we can stay connected.

Instagram: @imsorrywerefriends
Website: www.laurenlentz.com
Email: lauren@imsorrywerefriends.com

On my website, you’ll find more information about my current offerings, including 1:1 grief coaching and group support containers designed specifically for women navigating the loss of a partner.

These spaces are not about rushing your grief or trying to move you “forward” before you’re ready. They are about creating room for what’s actually here, and supporting you as you begin to understand and live inside a life that has fundamentally changed.

In this first episode of the series, we’re exploring something that many widows quietly recognize but rarely have space to fully unpack:

The experience of identity loss after the death of a spouse.

Not just grief in the emotional sense, but the deeper internal experience of no longer recognizing yourself inside your own life.

We talk about why identity rupture is not separate from grief, but part of it. How identity is shaped in relationship. What happens when the relational system you were living inside suddenly disappears. And why the nervous system, roles, and sense of self all begin to shift at the same time.

For many widows, this shows up as:
“I don’t know who I am anymore.”
“I don’t recognize myself.”
“A piece of me died when he did.”

This episode is about slowing all of that down and naming what is actually happening beneath the surface — not to soften it, but to better understand it.

Because when we can understand what’s happening inside of us, we can stop feeling so alone in it.

Work With Me / Stay Connected

If this resonated with you, I would love a "like," review, or share. All ways to extend the reach of my podcast to those who need to hear it.

Stay connected:

Learn more about my grief support offerings
→ [laurenlentz.com]

Follow along for daily grief reflections
Instagram: [@imsorrywerefriends]

In this episode…

I explore why suffering becomes such a common (and often misunderstood) part of widowhood and early grief and how it can quietly take root not just as pain, but as meaning, identity, and even connection.

This is not about pathologizing grief or suggesting we “do it wrong.”
It’s about gently understanding what is actually happening beneath the surface of our experience.

Because for many widows, suffering is not something we consciously choose, it is something the mind and body organize around in an attempt to make sense of profound loss.

What we cover in this episode:

1. Why widowhood often feels like suffering

How the loss of a spouse is not just emotional loss—but the loss of:

• safety
• identity
• internal orientation
• the life we organized ourselves around

And why that creates an internal experience of disorientation that can feel like survival.

2. Why suffering can feel like connection

We explore how:

• the nervous system still seeks proximity after loss
• pain can begin to feel like the only remaining link to the person who died
• suffering can become unintentionally associated with love, devotion, and meaning

And why that association is deeply human—not pathological.

3. The hidden rules that form in early grief

How beliefs can quietly form such as:

• “If I stop suffering, I am letting them go”
• “If I feel okay, I am forgetting them”
• “If I move forward, I am betraying what we had”

And how these beliefs are not logical decisions, but emotional meanings formed in shock, love, and social pressure.

4. Pain vs. suffering (and why the distinction matters)

We begin to separate:

• Pain: the raw reality of loss and longing
• Suffering: the story the mind creates about what that pain means

And how that story can begin to shape identity, time, and the way we see our future.

5. Why suffering can feel like devotion

How grief can blur into:

• loyalty
• love
• devotion
• emotional survival strategies

And why “I hurt this much = I loved this much” becomes an internal equation many people unconsciously carry.

6. The deeper layer: identity after loss

How grief is not only about missing someone—but also about:

• missing who we were with them
• losing access to versions of ourselves they brought forward
• questioning who we are without that relational reflection

And why these are identity-level disruptions, not just emotional ones.

7. Why this experience is not something you are doing wrong

A grounding reminder that:

• suffering is a human response to attachment loss
• the mind is trying to organize the unorganizable
• meaning-making is part of survival, not failure

8. A gentle reframe

You don’t have to suffer to stay connected.
You don’t have to stay in pain to honor love.

And noticing that possibility does not require change—only awareness.

Closing reflection

Nothing in this experience means you are broken, stuck, or grieving incorrectly.

It means you loved someone in a way that shaped your entire internal world—and your mind and body are still trying to orient themselves after that loss.

And over time, gently, you may begin to notice the difference between:

• what hurts because it is love
• and what hurts because it has become the only way you kn