When Your Child Dies as a Mormon Mom - Heidi Bruno Pt. 2 | Ep. 2092
Mormon Stories Podcast
Dr. John Dehlin
4.6 • 5.2K Ratings
🗓️ 10 December 2025
⏱️ 115 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We are back today with Part 2 of our epic interview with Heidi Bruno. In Part 1, Heidi shared her story of suffering sexual abuse as a teenager at the hands of the Elders Quorum President in her ward.
In Part 2, we shift the focus to Heidi’s daughter, Holly, who was diagnosed with cancer at the age of eight and tragically passed away in March of 2018. Heidi describes the inspiring movement that Holly started during her treatment, called “Love Is Everywhere,” and the wide-reaching impact it had on many communities.
While the gospel was a great comfort to Holly and her family during this heartbreaking time, Heidi also shares how her views on the LDS Church began to shift after experiencing the death of her daughter as a devout Mormon mother.
We are extremely grateful to Heidi for her strength in sharing this sobering story and hope that it resonates with all of you as deeply as it did with us.
You can listen to Holly and her sisters singing "This Is My Song" on YouTube here.
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Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello, everyone and welcome to another edition of Mormon Stories podcast. I'm your host, |
| 0:03.7 | John DeLinn. Today, you are joining us for part two of our interview with Heidi Bruno. |
| 0:11.4 | If you have not already watched part one of our interview with Heidi Bruno, you'll want to |
| 0:17.0 | pause this episode, go back and watch part one and then join us here for part two. |
| 0:22.6 | But for those who did not join us for part one, in part one of her interview with Heidi Bruno, |
| 0:27.6 | we hear her story of how she was raised as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Lattery Saints, |
| 0:33.6 | a faithful, devout Mormon girl who at the age of 16 was groomed by the elders' corn |
| 0:40.6 | president of her ward and was sexually abused by him. You'll hear about how the abuse was |
| 0:48.9 | hidden, mishandled by church leaders, and it is a really heart-wrenching and heartbreaking story. |
| 0:56.0 | Yet another example of how the Mormon Church can sometimes create an environment |
| 1:02.0 | where young girls and boys can be groomed for abuse, and how ultimately the Mormon Church often covers up this abuse, protects the abusers, |
| 1:14.2 | pressures the victims to stay silent, and this allows a system of abuse to continue. |
| 1:20.8 | So please join us for part one of our interview with Heidi if you haven't already seen it. |
| 1:26.9 | And now what you're about to see is part two of our interview with Heidi, you haven't already seen it. And now what you're about to see is part |
| 1:29.1 | two of our interview with Heidi, where she talks about as a Mormon woman and as a Mormon mom, |
| 1:33.9 | she has several children. One of her children named Holly contracts cancer around the age of |
| 1:41.5 | eight. And it talks about the promises she was made, about Holly being healed, |
| 1:47.0 | about Holly not being healed, and about what it's like to have a child die as a Mormon mom. |
| 1:54.7 | And then what that does not only to her faith journey, but also to her reconciliation |
| 2:00.2 | with her own past of being abused by the |
| 2:04.7 | Elders Corn president and by having that abuse be so terribly mishandled in her Mormon ward. |
| 2:11.8 | So thanks for joining us today. |
... |
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