Thank you so much for listening! We'd love to hear from you---what you would love to hear, what you like, what helped, etc. With love, Warrior Moms Michele & Amy

Grief can split a life in two—before the call and after. We sit with Nicole Canamare to honor her son Gavin, a brown‑eyed, quick‑witted middle child who traded team sports for skateboards and a boxing ring, journaled dreams into a logo called 7Love, and fought addiction with a courage that never boasted. Nicole takes us from school struggles and ADD labels to the moment a prescription helped, then harmed, and the night a hospital chair turned fear into naming the truth: addiction had taken hold and treatment was urgent.

What follows is the real timeline so many families know but seldom speak aloud—rehab, relapse, resolve, and the decision to work the steps with intention. There’s a rare Labor Day with family photos, amends made in hard conversations, and a workplace that stood by him. Then comes the Friday call and the kind of silence that only shock understands. Community crowds the house and somehow their laughter downstairs becomes a blanket. When sleep won’t come, Psalm 23 does. Anger gives way to a quiet assurance that Gavin’s pain is gone, even as Nicole’s remains.

We talk about the second year’s permanence, the strange twinship of joy and sorrow with new grandchildren, and why saying a child’s name matters. Nicole shares grounded, practical ways forward: return to simple rituals like gardening, seek faith or peer support that can hold heavy truths, and say yes to gentle plans without abandoning your limits. Strength doesn’t mean it feels better; it means you can carry what you couldn’t yesterday.

Gavin’s legacy lives through the 7Love Foundation—his handwritten vision turned into a mission to support families navigating addiction, a space too often left behind. If you’ve ever felt alone facing addiction, relapse, or bereavement, this conversation offers language, companionship, and a path toward purpose. Subscribe, share with someone who needs it, and leave a review with one insight you’re taking into your own life.

"Dream Bird" by Jonny Easton

Support the show

Thank you for listening to Warrior Moms podcast. It is an honor to share about our beloved children gone too soon, and we hope by telling of our loss, it may help someone in their grief journey. Please note that we are not medical professionals and encourage those listening to seek help from mental health professionals.

We'd love to hear from our followers!

Website: https://www.warriormoms.me/
DONATE * Listen to Other Podcast Episodes * Sign up for Newsletter * Get on our Retreat Waitlist * Invite Us to Speak * Contact us!

With love,
Warrior Moms Amy & Michele

Thank you so much for listening! We'd love to hear from you---what you would love to hear, what you like, what helped, etc. With love, Warrior Moms Michele & Amy

You can feel the moment the room exhales: someone asks a mother her child’s name, and everyone leans in to listen. That’s the heart of this conversation with the Purple Table—women who arrived at a grief retreat braced for tears and left with something larger than sorrow: connection, language, and practices they could carry home.

We talk candidly about the fear of showing up, the second-guessing in the car, and the relief of being with people who understand without explanation. A veteran Warrior Mom table leader Robyn shares how modeling joy years after loss can offer real hope to moms still in the raw months. Newer mothers describe the thaw of finally telling their children’s stories in full. The group unpacks the Monday and week after the retreat—emotional hangovers, quiet peace, and the surprising power of purpose—like one mom, Jolyn, who launched a local support circle where five women stayed talking for hours. It’s grief, but it’s also momentum.

Holidays raise the stakes, so we dig into simple, repeatable rituals: a place setting with notes for the missing child, luminaries with photos, memory trees filled with donated ornaments, and the right to take a break mid-tradition and return when you can breathe again. We sit with hard truths—families don’t always know how to help—and offer clear permission: there are no rules. Do what helps. Ask for what you need. Keep some traditions for surviving kids who crave stability, or build new ones that make space for tears and gratitude to coexist.

By the end, you’ll hear a shared credo: turn pain into purpose when you can, rest when you can’t, and let community carry what’s too heavy for one set of hands. If you’re navigating child loss—or love someone who is—this conversation offers practical tools, warm company, and proof that being “a badass” in grief can simply mean showing up for yourself and each other. If this resonates, share it with a friend, subscribe for more real talk, and leave a review so other grieving parents can find us.

"Dream Bird" by Jonny Easton

Support the show

Thank you for listening to Warrior Moms podcast. It is an honor to share about our beloved children gone too soon, and we hope by telling of our loss, it may help someone in their grief journey. Please note that we are not medical professionals and encourage those listening to seek help from mental health professionals.

We'd love to hear from our followers!

Website: https://www.warriormoms.me/
DONATE * Listen to Other Podcast Episodes * Sign up for Newsletter * Get on our Retreat Waitlist * Invite Us to Speak * Contact us!

With love,
Warrior Moms Amy & Michele

Thank you so much for listening! We'd love to hear from you---what you would love to hear, what you like, what helped, etc. With love, Warrior Moms Michele & Amy

Fifty moms stepped into a Georgia barn and turned a hard weekend into a living map for anyone walking through child loss. We opened the floor for questions and went straight to the heart: how do you start a local grief group when it’s just you and one friend, how do you keep it going nine years later, and what do you do when the room is a mix of newly bereaved, step-parents, and moms farther down the road? We shared the simple moves that make a group work—consistent dates, low-friction spaces, private social posts, and the courage to begin small—and the deeper habits that protect the culture: honesty, listening, and gentleness.

Our conversation dug into the story behind our book: why we wrote it from real mom voices, how messy drafts became clear chapters, and how love for our children pulled us through endless edits and publisher hoops. We explored what’s next—possible sibling and warrior dad projects—and how transcripts and short interviews can help hesitant writers find their words. When dads came up, we talked about shoulder-to-shoulder ways men connect—on a boat, at a game, or over quiet work—and how small groups and brief, steady touchpoints often fit how fathers process grief.

Listeners asked about warmth after the fog, rebuilding joy at home, and parenting a rainbow baby while honoring the child who died. The answers were lived-in: a playlist that fills a kitchen with memory, permission to be “stone” during awkward hugs (LOL), grace as a daily practice, and the holding gratitude and sorrow together.

We also named the engine behind the retreat’s hospitality and for our own grief: ask for help. People want to cook, set tables, and open doors when we give them a way to show love.

If you or someone you love needs a map for the early days—or a way to lead in your community—this conversation offers steps you can use tomorrow, and stories that will keep you company while you try. Subscribe, share this with a friend who shows up for others, and leave a review to help more moms find their way to us.

NOTE: apologies for the quiet parts. I didn't want to delete the questions even when some of them are hard to hear because the answers are important. Thanks for the grace!

"Dream Bird" by Jonny Easton

Support the show

Thank you for listening to Warrior Moms podcast. It is an honor to share about our beloved children gone too soon, and we hope by telling of our loss, it may help someone in their grief journey. Please note that we are not medical professionals and encourage those listening to seek help from mental health professionals.

We'd love to hear from our followers!

Website: https://www.warriormoms.me/
DONATE * Listen to Other Podcast Episodes * Sign up for Newsletter * Get on our Retreat Waitlist * Invite Us to Speak * Contact us!

With love,
Warrior Moms Amy & Michele