“I know the pause of grief.”
In this episode, I sit down with attorney Stephanie Prestridge for a conversation about the part of grief almost nobody talks about: the collision between emotional loss and the systems people are suddenly forced to navigate after someone dies.
We talk about what grief does to people emotionally, financially, relationally, and cognitively. About the paperwork families suddenly face while trying to survive unimaginable loss. About life insurance claims, legal confusion, family conflict, delayed grief, and the invisible weight people carry while the world keeps moving around them.
But underneath all of it, this conversation is deeply human.
Stephanie shares the story of losing her younger sister as a child, what it looked like to put her own grief on pause while focusing on her mother, and how those experiences eventually transformed the way she practices law today.
We talk about:
- delayed and paused grief
- what grief does to families after loss
- the overwhelming administrative side of death
- life insurance claims and denied benefits
- family conflict after someone dies
- grief ambushes and emotional shutdown
- carrying love forward instead of staying frozen
- the difference between surviving grief and drowning in it
Stephanie also shares what she’s learned sitting with grieving families every day and why being “seen” matters just as much as legal guidance.
At its core, this episode is about learning how to move forward without leaving the people we love behind.
Connect with Stephanie:
Website: PrestridgeLaw.com
Resources: robertdelfave.com
Free audio series: Not Alone — robertdelfave.com
Book a free discovery call: robertdelfave.com
The Carried Forward Podcast is hosted by Robert DelFave, grief coach, David Kessler Certified Grief Educator, and author of The Other Side of This.
New episodes released regularly.
What is Carried Forward?
Grief doesn't end, it transforms.
The Carried Forward Podcast is a conversation-driven show about what happens after loss. Not the moment of loss itself, but the long, slow, often invisible work of rebuilding identity, meaning, and purpose on the other side of it.
Host Robert DelFave is a grief coach, author, and someone who lost both parents young. He sits down with grief professionals, researchers, therapists, authors, and thought leaders to ask the questions his clients are living with every day. What does carrying grief forward actually look like? How do you rebuild who you are on the other side of this?