Episode 867: Heather Sorensen, Grief of Losing Her Daughter Hannah at Age 15, New Book

Listen, Learn & Love Hosted by Richard Ostler

Richard Ostler

Religion & Spirituality

4.7 • 855 Ratings

🗓️ 5 March 2026

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

My friend Heather Sorensen (married mother of 4; grandmother of 14, early morning seminary teacher), joins us to share her story of losing her daughter Hannah in a traffic accident at age 15 in 2013. Heather talks about the initial and continued grief of her death and how she is navigating both holding her grief and her testimony of being with Hannah again. Heather talks about a dream she had before Hannah was born and that feeling returning during Hannah’s death. She also talks about losing her son Richard at birth. Heather talks about not being active in the Church for twenty years and her journey to return to the church and the importance of creating her identity rooted in Jesus Christ and invites us to do the same. Heather talks about her son Zachary’s cancer diagnosis during home MTC, fear she would lose another child, and Zachary’s recovery and serving a mission. Heather talks about why she decided to write a book about Hannah—called Dandelion Blessings—which is Hannah’s nickname. If you are looking for a genuine/honest story of intense grief—and finding hope/peace to move forward—please listen and share Heather’s podcast and book. Thank you, Heather, for your courage and vulnerability to be on the podcast. You are helping so many! Links: Dandelion Blessings (at Amazon): https://a.co/d/0eK9OYGy

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, welcome listeners to another episode of Listen, Learn, and Love, hosted by Richard Osler.
0:09.7	My guest on today's podcast, my friend Heather Sorensen, joining us from her home outside of Branson, Missouri.
0:17.6	Welcome to the podcast, Heather.
0:19.9	Thank you. It's wonderful to be here, Richard.
0:23.0	Heather and I started trading emails, maybe even over a year ago, talking about her journey,
0:31.0	especially losing a daughter by the name of Hannah with a nickname Dandelion at age 15, almost 16,
0:39.7	and navigating that journey.
0:41.1	And she almost came on the podcast last summer.
0:43.8	But concurring with that, she felt impressed to write a book.
0:48.1	And so we decided to delay the podcast until the book was complete.
0:52.2	Well, it's January of 2026 and the book is complete. The book is
0:57.4	called Dandelions Blessings. This is your daughter, Hannah, that's passed away, written by her mother,
1:03.5	Heather Sorensen. And Heather's going to come on the podcast. We'll link to the book and the show notes.
1:11.0	It's on Amazon so you can buy it if you'd like to.
1:13.9	But if you're working through grief and really difficult chapters in your life and your
1:18.0	Latter-day Saint looking for another Latter-day Saint voice walking the same road with courage
1:24.1	and grace and honoring all the pain of losing a daughter.
1:31.1	My feeling is Heather's podcast and her book will help you.
1:33.3	Heather's really brave to do this.
1:38.5	I'm not sure she's like many of my guests has been on a podcast than anything public.
1:43.6	Most of my guests are like Heather, just doing this for the first time, and we set a prayer together,
1:45.7	and I just, my heart kind of went out to Heather and for her courage to talk about really
	...

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