Welcome, Leslie. I'm so excited you're here to talk about family and other calamities, a novel. Congratulations.

Thank you so much. I'm happy to be here. Yay. All right. I'm going to read a little bit about you for everybody listening.

Leslie Gray's Streeter is an award-winning journalist and columnist for the Baltimore Banner.

She is the author of the memoir, Black Widow, A Sad, Funny Journey Through Grief for people

who normally avoid books with words like Journey in the title.

The co-host of the podcast, Fine Beats and Cheeses, and a frequent speaker on grief.

She is also a slow runner, an amateur vegan cook,

and a fan of Law & Order. Leslie lives in Baltimore, Maryland, with her son, Brooks. Welcome.

Thank you. Welcome. Yay. So I met Leslie during the, not met, but met online the way we all do

these days, during the pandemic not met, but met online, the way we all do these days, during the pandemic when

her first book came out and we talked all about grief. And that book helped me through a really

hard period of time in my life. And so I've had this special relationship with you,

even though I haven't met you, because of your candidness and openness around your own grief,

which was totally different

from mine.

But there is obviously something in grief that unites everybody.

And most people have been through grief of some kind.

And the way you wrote about it was particularly amazing.

So thank you for that.

And I've gotten that a lot from people.

I think I wrote the book about my husband dying in my first year

of widowhood. And then it came out seven days before lockdown in 2020. So, and that in itself

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