What do you do when life throws you two cataclysmic curve balls in a short period of time that fracture your whole identity? My guest today is Lucy Melville. Lucy is a widow, and mother of three young people. Her husband Brian died of stage IV lung cancer in July 2023 just 6 weeks after diagnosis whilst her youngest child was still at school. Just one year after losing her husband, Lucy was unexpectedly made redundant from the job that kept her functioning through her grief.

In this moving and emotional interview, Lucy talks us through the surreal process of finding out about Brian’s diagnosis and navigating the speed of his illness and ultimately his death just a short time later. She describes the impact on her and her children of losing the husband and father they adored, and then being rocked again by dealing with both an empty nest as her children left home, and the compounded grief of losing the job (and second ‘work family’) that had kept her steady through her bereavement.

Lucy talks honestly about how isolated, invisible, and abandoned she felt at this time in her life, but also the subsequent reinvention after her long dark night of the soul, and finding hope and renewed sense of identity through her new business venture River Light Press.

Listen in to hear Lucy’s advice for anyone grappling with difficult times right now, and be inspired by her heroine’s journey to light and a new life.

You can find Lucy at https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucymelville and River Light Press at https://www.aurorametro.com/river-light-press/

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You can also find me at www.thetripleshift.org and www.managingthemenopause.com or connect with me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmacthomas/