When Nicole’s husband was diagnosed with ALS, she was six months pregnant.

In this episode, we sit together one year after his passing and talk about what life has actually looked like since.

Nicole shares moments from their journey—from the early days of diagnosis to the Honor Walk at the hospital, the decisions around organ donation, and the ways she continues to carry her husband’s presence forward for their children.

We talk about grief, identity after caregiving, motherhood inside loss, and the quiet ways love continues.

This is an honest conversation about what comes after everything changes.

For more of my work: ☕ www.mariaaleandra.com

My caregiver journal: 📓 https://amzn.to/4cvrTKB

Find Nicole: 📸 https://www.instagram.com/makewayforchucklings/

There are forms of grief that don’t begin with an ending.

They arrive quietly, while love is still here.

In this conversation, I sit with Allie Brunner—an artist, caregiver, and storyteller whose life shifted after her husband’s ALS diagnosis.

Together, we explore what it means to love someone while also grieving the changes unfolding in real time.

We talk about identity, the tension between hope and reality, and the quiet, often invisible weight of caregiving. We also reflect on the ways grief lives in the body, how it shows up in family life, and what it means to keep going—one day at a time.

This is a conversation about presence.

About love that adapts.

About learning how to hold what was never meant to be held.

Connect with Allie:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alliecbrunner

Website: https://www.illuminatingals.com

If you’re looking for a place to sit with all of this a little longer, you can find me here: ☕ www.mariaaleandra.com

And if something in this conversation stirred and you want a space to put it down, my caregiver journal is here: ✍️ https://amzn.to/4cvrTKB

Inspirare means to breathe life into.

In this reflection, I explore the quiet impulse to create from pain—to write, speak, make, and notice beauty even when life feels heavy.

Inspired by ancient wisdom and lived experience, this episode is about staying present with what hurts, without hardening. About letting breath, tenderness, and attention become a form of resistance.

Not to escape the world, but to meet it with an open heart.