In this episode I’m joined by Oriagh Reynolds, whose husband Fraser died from motor neurone disease.

Their story starts the way so many of the best ones do. A chance meeting in Dublin, a bit of boldness, and a gut feeling that turned into a life. Together they built something full. Australia, travel, work, marriage, and their daughter, Una.

And then another gut feeling. This one telling Oriagh they needed to go home to Ireland.

Not long after, Fraser was diagnosed with MND.

What follows is a conversation about what happens when you are told, in no uncertain terms, that the person you love is going to die, and there is nothing you can do to stop it.

Oriagh talks about what the disease took from Fraser, slowly and relentlessly, and how they made a conscious decision to focus on what remained. Their home became a place of care, honesty, humour, and, perhaps most strikingly, gratitude. Not forced positivity, but a daily practice that carried them through the worst of it.

We talk about parenting through terminal illness. How you explain something like this to a child. How you include them without overwhelming them. And what it looks like to raise a child in the middle of something most adults would struggle to survive.

We talk about Fraser’s creativity in the face of unimaginable loss. The art he created using only his eyes. The legacy he built while his body failed him. And the letter he left behind for his wife and daughter, waiting until the moment it was needed.

And we talk about what comes after. Solo parenting. The empty house at night. The decisions that are yours and yours alone. And the relentless reality of continuing on.

This one is devastating in places. But it’s also full of love, strength, and a kind of perspective that stays with you.

Rosie is joined by Fran Milne, whose husband Matt died suddenly after collapsing on a flight home from Singapore.

What begins as a familiar story of work travel, school runs and family life shifts in an instant into something unthinkable. A knock at the door. A police officer standing on the driveway. And the kind of shock that splits your life into before and after.

In this deeply honest conversation, Fran talks Rosie through the moment everything changed. From the surreal wait in her living room, to the phone call from the air ambulance, to the long drive to the hospital knowing something was very wrong. And then the moment no one can prepare you for.

They talk about the practical and emotional chaos that follows sudden loss. Telling the children. The decisions you never thought you’d have to make. The strange, jarring details that stay with you. And the small moments of humanity that carry you through the worst day of your life.

There is heartbreak here, but also warmth, humour, and the kind of clarity that only comes from living through it.

This episode covers:

• Sudden death and medical trauma

• The reality of a police knock at the door

• Deep vein thrombosis and missed symptoms

• The experience of hospital after a sudden loss

• Telling children their parent has died

• Early grief, shock, and survival

Jess Herrick was 28 when her partner Max was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive cancer.

What followed was a year of brutal treatment, long hospital stays, and a kind of life that no one in their twenties expects to be living. Against the odds, Max went into remission and they tried to rebuild. But just a year later, the cancer came back, this time terminal.

In this episode, Jess talks about loving someone through illness, becoming a carer in your mid-twenties, and the quiet, devastating losses that come with young widowhood, not just the person, but the future you were meant to have together.

They got married in a hospice just days before Max died.

Jess also shares what it’s actually like to be widowed at 28, the messy reality of grief in your twenties, and why she’s now helping other young widows find each other through peer support.

This one is raw, honest, and devastating, but also full of love.