Wife, Widow, Now What? with Rachel Engstrom
Life, Death & The Space Between with Dr. Amy Robbins
Dr. Amy Robbins
4.8 • 587 Ratings
🗓️ 27 October 2022
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
WIFE, WIDOW, NOW WHAT? with RACHEL ENGSTROM
“You can have your life blow up and be ok.”
– Rachel Engstrom, author of “Wife, Widow, Now What?”
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EPISODE SUMMARY:
How would you feel if you found yourself widowed at age 31? Talk about life giving you a whammy!
Today we talk with Rachel Engstrom - a health education specialist and widow’s advocate, who found herself widowed at age 31. She authored “Wife, Widow, Now What?” with a fresh, witty, and authentic voice. Her book is an invaluable resource for cancer spouses, and anyone navigating the process of losing a loved one, or supporting a loved one after a loss.
Listen and learn how to manage the shock of a cancer diagnosis, and how you can keep living through the unthinkable, and still come out okay on the other side.
Topics We Discuss:
- [3:38] Rachel dives into her journey meeting, marrying, and later losing her husband.
- [8:05] How Rachel came to write her book as a guide for someone going through the loss of a spouse, or someone who maybe doesn’t know how to support a loved one suffering a loss. It’s a love story toolbox: logistics around health insurance, disability, talking to their employer, funeral arrangements, life insurance, how to ask for help, and more.
- [11:25] Rachel discusses how music helped her cope.
- [15:32] In hindsight, what Rachel would have done differently.
- [24:36] Amy’s new offering: a spiritual consultation, not a therapy appointment and not a medium reading, but somewhere in between.
- [27:15] Rachel discusses her work with GriefCoach.com -- a new app for supporting grieving people through texts.
- [29:15] Rachel talks about her life afterward and now: how she got back out in the world, started dating again, and remarried.
- [32:02] Working in cancer education to ensure people have the resources they need to get the best treatment possible.
- [34:16] How Rachel’s relationship to her first husband fits into her life with her new husband.
FOLLOW RACHEL ENGSTROM:
Find Rachel on her Website, Instagram, and Facebook.
Rachel’s book, “Wife, Widow, Now What?” is available on Amazon.
Life, Death and the Space Between is brought to you by:
Dr. Amy Robbins | Host, Executive Producer
PJ Duke | Executive Producer
Andrej | Podcasticize | Sound Editing
Mara Stallins | Outreach & Social Media Strategy
Claire | Clairperk.com | Podcast Cover Design
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, I'm Dr. Amy Robbins and welcome to Life, Death, and the Space Between Podcast. |
| 0:13.6 | I'm a licensed clinical psychologist and medium, and here we explore life, death, consciousness, |
| 0:22.4 | and what it all means. |
| 0:29.7 | Rachel Engstrom, MSW, and C-H-E-S, certified health education. |
| 0:31.9 | Specialist. |
| 0:32.8 | Specialist. |
| 0:33.8 | I almost got it all. |
| 0:39.1 | Moved to the Twin Cities from Michigan in 2000 for undergrad and has been there ever since. She has her master's in social work and is a certified education health education specialist. |
| 0:46.1 | I should have seen that there before. Her book is based on her own personal experience as a |
| 0:51.4 | cancer wife, then widow, that is an invaluable resource to anyone |
| 0:56.4 | going through the cancer process journey, whether patient, caregiver, or supporter. |
| 1:04.0 | Rachel wrote her book, Wife, Widow, Now What, to help others along the way with a fresh, witty, and authentic narrative. |
| 1:14.7 | Welcome, Rachel. |
| 1:16.2 | Hi, thank you for having me. |
| 1:18.0 | Thank you for being here. |
| 1:19.8 | Thank you so much for everybody who has supported the podcast. |
| 1:23.4 | So there's so many ways you can support the podcast and the work that I'm doing. |
| 1:27.4 | One, you can spread the word about the podcast. |
| 1:30.8 | So share the podcast with someone you know, repost my anything on social media. |
| 1:36.7 | If you are a therapist listening to the podcast and you have a client who you think would benefit, share it with them. |
| 1:42.6 | This podcast has grown completely organically. |
| 1:46.3 | I've never done advertising. |
... |
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