{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Unparented","title":"When We Start Laughing, We Start Healing","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":4219,"description":"This week, I'm sitting down with Erica Richmond, a writer, grief guide, and founder of Open Sky Stories. Erica lost her ex-husband to suicide when their kids were just seven and ten. Eleven years later, she lost her dad. She's been living in grief for over a decade and has learned that the only way through it is to let it be as messy as it needs to be.\nWhat stands out about Erica is how she's held space for her kids to grieve in their own ways. They made a Lego figurine of their dad and called him Lego Dad. Her youngest drew pictures with his dad in a coffin or as a floating head in the sky. And when her ten year old asked if cremation was done with a laser beam or a flamethrower, she just went with it. Because sometimes that's all you can do.\nWe talk about the exhaustion and blur that comes with grief, how she grew to resent being called resilient, and why dark humor became her family's way of surviving. Erica also shares how writing and creating art helped her process what words alone couldn't touch, and how that eventually became Open Sky Stories, a space for others to do the same.\nThis conversation is honest, funny, and full of the kind of realness that only comes from someone who's been in the thick of it. If you've ever felt like you weren't grieving the right way, this one's for you.\nWe get into:\n\nwhat surprised her most about losing her dad at 49\nhow her kids expressed grief through play and art\nthe question her son asked about cremation that caught her off guard\nwhy she grew to resent being called resilient\nthe blur that comes with grief and what it actually feels like\nhow dark humor became a lifeline for her family\nthe grief group that helped more than she expected\nwhy writing and art give her something talking can't\nwhat she built with Open Sky Stories\nwhat healing means when you're never really over it\n\nErica's story is a reminder that grief doesn't have to look a certain way. Sometimes it looks like Lego Dad. Sometimes it looks like laughing at a...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/AZjp1ZzwTB7VJ2U954KHvC1-Xx6cP-PT94a6p9MsWbo/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9mNWQ0/MzRiODY5ZmIxN2Y1/NWNjYTcwOGQ1ZTU5/MDQyOS5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}