Whole New Life
Whole New Life
Stacy Ryan
PODCAST: Having survived cancer in my 40s and the loss of my husband in my 50s, I deeply empathize with the challenges you may be facing. I share my coping strategies and the determination it takes to remain resilient. By following my journey, you'll discover practical techniques to manage grief, build emotional strength, and find hope even in the darkest times. Throughout 30 episodes, I candidly share every moment of my falls and the strength I found to rise again each time. I chronicle my journey of learning and growth and include a surprising twist I never thought possible: falling in love again. Widowhood has been far from easy, the effort I invested in five years following my husband's passing has, and will always remain, entirely worthwhile. BOOK SERIES: In 2024 I wrote and self-published a 3-book series about my life, love, and loss. You may purchase on Amazon in paperback, eBook, and audiobook.  Book One:46 Days: Just the beginning of my healing journey…Approximately two months after my husband passed away from cancer, I needed to get away for a while. In 2020 I was not only his wife, but also his caregiver for the last year of his life. Watching my husband slowly die in front of my eyes took everything out of me. Book Two:140.6 sMILES: It was more than just crossing the finish line…Both the physical and mental strength it took to train for, as well as complete, actually provided me with the physical and mental strength I needed when I found out I had cancer in 2013, as well as learning my husband’s cancer was terminal in 2020. Book Three: 3 Words: Powerful words that changed my life forever…The most gut-wrenching words I have ever heard were spoken to me in 2013 and then again to my husband in 2019: “You Have Cancer.” WEBSITE: https://stacyryanauthor.com/ DISCLAIMER: My story should not be interpreted in any way as expert, health, or medical advice. I chose to share my story, in my voice, to assure people they are not alone and perhaps provide a bit of inspiration or a glimpse of hope, if needed.
Loving Twice: How I Honor My Past While Embracing My Future
After losing my husband to cancer in 2020, I embarked on what felt like an impossible journey—finding purpose in my shattered world. In this final episode, I reflect on the path I've traveled from wife to caregiver to widow to now embracing my whole new life. The grief journey has been anything but linear. I've fallen countless times but somehow found the strength to rise again. Through raw journal entries, therapy sessions, and painful "firsts," I've documented the rollercoaster of widowhoo...
May 31, 2025
21 min
Rebuilding Hearts: Dale and Annie's Journey from Grief to a Second Chance
Can your heart truly find love again after experiencing the shattering pain of losing a spouse? Dale and Annie's story proves it's not only possible—it can happen when you least expect it. When Annie posted on Facebook asking for help spreading mulch before her daughter's wedding, she never imagined it would lead to finding love again. Dale, also a widow who had lost his wife to cancer, showed up with his wheelbarrow and shovel. Day after day, he returned to help with projects around her pro...
May 24, 2025
13 min
The Evolution of Remembering: How Memories Shift After Loss
Memory works in mysterious ways after profound loss. Four years after my husband John died from cancer, I've made a startling discovery about grief that nobody warned me about – sometimes I can't remember whether events in my life happened before or after he passed away. This realization initially crushed me with guilt. How could something so fundamental become blurry? What does it mean when I have to consciously focus – to be "in the zone" – to place memories correctly on my life's timeline...
May 17, 2025
8 min
When Time Stops: How Caregiving and Sudden Loss Shape Different Grief Journeys
Grief arrives in many forms, and its timing is never what we expect. After losing my husband to cancer in 2020, I discovered that my grieving process had actually begun a year earlier with his diagnosis—a slow unraveling as I watched him slip away while trying to savor every remaining moment. The contrast with my sister-in-law Annie's experience couldn't be more stark: she lost her husband suddenly to a heart attack, performing CPR in their bedroom at 2:30 AM after they had casually said good...
May 10, 2025
15 min
Finding Purpose After Losing Our Husbands to Cancer: The Past, The Now & The Future
Grief rewrites our entire life story, dividing it into clear chapters—before loss, during caregiving, after death, and the future we must now reimagine. In this deeply moving conversation, I sit with my friend Teri as we explore these four distinct parts of our widowhood journey after losing our husbands to colon cancer. We begin by reflecting on our previous lives—relationships marked by profound ease and partnership. Teri shares her 30-year love story with Rob, while I recall how my husban...
May 3, 2025
26 min
Real Emotions of Being a Widow: Feeling Guilty and Happy at the Same Time
Can you feel genuinely happy after devastating loss? When my husband died in 2020, I couldn't imagine ever experiencing true happiness again. Now, five years later, I've found myself in a surprising place – genuinely happy and yet wrestling with unexpected guilt about that happiness. "I thought genuine happiness was just a dream," reflecting on my darkest days. "Can I feel happy again? Can I feel joy? Can I be content in my life?" The answer, as I've discovered, is yes – though not without co...
Apr 26, 2025
15 min
Grief's Awkward Moments: Things People Said or Did and The Impact
Four of us share the raw truth about what helped—and hurt—our first year of grief. My sister-in-law Annie, Annie's husband Dale, and my boyfriend John join me for an intimate conversation about navigating widowhood together. We reveal the profound impact of simple statements like "you do you" and "it's okay not to be okay" that gave us permission to grieve authentically. We recount how friends who simply showed up—bringing food, scheduling visits, sharing memories, or just walking together—c...
Apr 19, 2025
18 min
From "We Were Going To" to "I Get To": My Journey of Renewal
When the future you planned suddenly vanishes, how do you move forward? After losing my husband to cancer in 2020, I faced the incredibly difficult journey of transforming our "we were going to" dreams into a new life of "I get to" opportunities. This deeply personal episode takes you through the evolution of our marriage conversations—from the light, daily check-ins of our 20s to the profound end-of-life discussions where my husband encouraged me to find purpose without him. I share how our...
Apr 12, 2025
9 min
Life After Loss: Navigating Memories
Grief transforms over time, especially in how we relate to photographs and memories of those we've lost. Four years after losing my husband John to cancer, I've discovered that reminiscing about our life together has evolved from unbearably painful to genuinely joyful. During that first year, I couldn't look beyond the heartbreaking final months of John's illness. Every photograph felt like a knife to the heart, yet I compulsively revisited those painful memories. When well-meaning friends a...
Apr 5, 2025
15 min
From Grief to Growth: Accepting My Whole New Life
Four years after grief changed everything, I'm returning for my final season to share the culmination of my healing journey. What does it truly mean to accept a new chapter after devastating loss? This episode takes you through my transformation from a grieving widow to someone who's genuinely, authentically happy again. By sharing raw journal entries spanning from June 2020 to April 2024, I reveal the gradual but profound shift from despair to hope, from merely surviving to genuinely ...
Mar 29, 2025
18 min
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