Today, we’re honored to sit down with Mike Bernhardt, editor of Voices of the Grieving Heart—an extraordinary anthology of poetry, essays, and artwork created by 83 individuals from around the world. These aren’t polished poems from literary giants—they are raw, real expressions from people navigating the depths of grief and the slow rise toward healing. Mike isn’t just an editor—he’s lived this loss. After the sudden passing of his first wife over 30 years ago, his life was forever changed. In this deeply moving conversation, Mike opens up about the journey from devastation to transformation, and how writing—his own and others’—can be a light in the darkest of times. Whether your grief is fresh or decades old, this conversation will meet you where you are. Let’s step into this space together. I am sharing my experience of loving the same man for 32 years, a mother to two adult children, a retired military officer, a breast cancer survivor, and my connections with others.  Anyone experiencing suicidal thoughts should reach out to a suicide hotline or local emergency number in their country: Psychology Today Suicide Hotlines and Prevention Resources Around the World. — Watch the episode here   Listen to the podcast here   Voices Of The Grieving Heart: From Heartbreak To Healing With Mike Bernhardt Our Guest is Mike Bernhardt. He is the Editor of Voices of the Grieving Heart and anthology of poetry about grieving the death of the people we love. Eighty-three people from around the world contributed poetry, essays, and artwork to share their journey through loss, grief, transformation, and healing. Mike is a Certified Greek Educator and has volunteered as a grief support facilitator. The poems that he is going to share in this book are going to let you know that you are not alone. There are different ways in which the people that are sharing their stories about their loved ones, but these homes are so heartfelt. Not about being a super great poet, but just being able to express your feelings. You will hear your voice is in these poems. Let’s get into this conversation now.         Mike, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. You say thank you for having me. When you hear welcome to the widowhood, if there was a ticker tape across your head, what am I not seeing that you thought of instantly hearing that? It’s just good to be here to be able to share my experiences and my book, but just my experience of grief. If that can help somebody, then I’m glad to share it here. Thank you for that. When you say your experience of grief, what is that predominantly related to? Mike’s Personal Grief Journey and Its Impact The most recent experience, was my mother’s death in May 2024. The biggest one for me was my first wife, when she died in 1991 April 7th. We’ve been married for seven years. I was 34 when she died and she was 31 and devastating as anyone who’s lost spouse can probably imagine. It is. Seemed like that much time is passed when you say those numbers or what does that look like for you? Yes and no. It is a long time. I was half as old as I am now. In fact, I’m now at the point where pretty much she’s been gone more time than I was alive when she died. Those are weird things to track, but I seem to do that. When you say weird things to track, for me, I feel like my late husband’s passing is the benchmark, I say, was it before or after Mark’s passing the light that had become a timeline. Can you relate to that? Yes, because my whole life changed and not just temporarily. They were permanent changes in the way I wanted to live my life after she died. It took time to get there. It’s like the meteor that killed off the dinosaurs. It’s like the whole world changed when my wife died. It was very sudden and she died pretty much overnight. It was a very unexpected thing. She was born with a congenital heart problem. Strangely, on our first date, she told me all about it. We talked for hours the whole thing. I knew what I was getting into, but she was very vivacious and just live life to the best that she could. It was a pretty serious problem, but it didn’t affect her attitude. We figured she had decades that she wouldn’t live to be an old woman, but we figured she’d lived into her 60s, then she started to have some issues. She took a new medication to deal with some fibrillation problems. A lot of people, I’m sure know what atrial fibrillation is, but she had a bad reaction to that medication. She had a ventricular fibrillation, which is not good. That’s like cardiac arrest territory. We took her to the hospital. I was there all night. I went home in the morning just to get a little sleep. Some friends of mine stayed with her and soon as I got home, I got a call that she’d passed. Thank you for sharing that, and you said your life changed dramatically. Someone reading this, they’re going, “That’s a long time ago. It probably wasn’t that bad.” What would you say to them in that statement? I would say it was that bad. It was like the whole world crashed out from under me. We were close. We loved each other. We thought we had plenty of time and then she was gone. I didn’t know how was I even going to live, let alone find happiness again. What were those steps for you in finding out how to live again? It was time, but not just time. It was time combined with letting my grief take me where it was going to take me. I was fortunate.