A PLACE OF YES podcast

“We are living every day with the fact that our son died, that our son who was supposed to be alive is not.” –Heather Straughter

Heather Straughter was 36 when her four-year-old son Jake suddenly died. Now, 13 years later Heather is sharing how the only way she could move forward was by channeling her grief for good and finding “A Place of Yes.”

“All I can say is, you can dig deep, figure out where you are, and figure out where you want to be, and for me, I found the answer was in this place of yes,” Heather said.

I Couldn’t Save Her: Losing My Daughter Changed Everything

After Kelsey died, I blamed myself. I replayed every decision, every appointment, every moment. I thought I was prepared to fight for her—I wasn’t prepared to lose her. Grief didn’t just touch my life, it unraveled it. And for a long time, I didn’t know how I’d ever come back from that. This is the part of motherhood no one talks about.

What No One Tells You About Parenting a Child with Rare Disease – Emergency Surgeries & Advocacy

When Jude needed emergency surgery, there wasn’t time to process—just to act. That’s the reality of parenting a medically complex child. It’s not just the big surgeries or diagnoses—it’s the constant decisions, the fear of missing something, the exhaustion of always being on alert. But somehow, through it all, there’s still joy. There’s still love. And there’s a strength I never knew I had until I became Jude’s mom.

Losing My Sister at 15 – One Year Later

When my sister died, I felt like the world kept moving—and I didn’t. I was only 15, and suddenly everything changed. No one talks about how isolating it is to lose a sibling, especially that young. People asked how my parents were doing, but no one ever really asked me. I had to figure out how to grow up with a kind of grief that didn’t have a place. This is what it’s really like to lose your sister when you’re still just a kid.