Friendship that holds through the worst moments is hard to put into words, but this conversation tries. Jill sits down with Andrew Reese, a retired pediatrician and long-time family friend, to talk about what it actually looks like to rebuild a life after something shatters it. For Andrew, that was a massive stroke in November 2019 that left his left side paralyzed, though he had no awareness of it in the moment. For Jill, it was losing her husband Adam. Both of them have been figuring out, in real time, how to keep going.

Andrew talks honestly about the early days of recovery, going from full speed to complete stillness, and how he developed what he calls minimum daily fitness, a small, non-negotiable commitment to his body that had as much to do with quieting his inner critic as it did with getting stronger. He also reflects on a recent climb up Pico Duarte, the tallest mountain in the Caribbean, and what came into focus afterward about identity, letting go of the role he had held for decades, and what he is building now in its place.

The conversation moves into what Andrew watched work with his patients and his own kids over the years, specifically around emotional validation and resilience. His point is simple but easy to skip over: you have to validate the feeling before you try to change the behavior. And the modeling of resilience, he says, starts with parents actually taking care of themselves, not just their children.

There is also a quieter thread running through all of it, about connection, vulnerability, and what happens when people stop waiting to feel better before they take the next step. Andrew describes it as acting your way into better feeling, and Jill recognizes it immediately from her own work with clients walking through grief and depression.

This one covers a lot of ground, stroke recovery, grief, parenting, identity after retirement, service work abroad, and two people who have stayed close through all of it.

Contact Jill K. Bershad, LMHC, CAP

• Email: jill@jillbershad.com
• Website: jillbershad.com
• Instagram: @jillkbershad.lmhc
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