Can't Call Your Mom with Nicole Weston

In this emotional and deeply honest episode, we sit down with Ashley to discuss the complexities of grieving a parent who struggled with mental illness and addiction. This conversation explores the challenges of holding space for love while navigating difficult family boundaries, the unique pain of losing a loved one during the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the path to finding true peace after a complicated relationship ends.Key TakeawaysNavigating Complex Family Dynamics: Understanding the difficult balance between loving a parent, setting firm boundaries, and protecting your own family from cycles of addiction and toxicity.Grief During Isolation: Insights into the emotional hurdles of saying goodbye to a parent under the restrictive and often lonely conditions of COVID-19 hospital protocols.The "Relief" of Loss: Addressing the often-taboo feeling of relief that can accompany the death of a challenging parent and how to process the guilt that comes with it.Finding Peace: How Ashley transitioned from trying to "fix" her father to accepting his journey, leading to personal growth, deeper self-reflection, and identity discovery.The Power of Support: Reflecting on the impact of compassionate healthcare workers and the importance of having a support system, even when family dynamics are fractured.Connect with Ashley:Instagram: @tranquilwaterstransitionEmail: tranquilwatertransition@gmail.comConnect with Nicole:📧 Join The Four O'Clock Club : a weekly email community sent at 4:00 PM ⁠⁠https://www.nicoleweston.ca/blog⁠⁠Work with Nicole: Book a free 20 minute introductory call with Nicole https://calendly.com/nicoleweston/20-minute-connection-callInstagram:⁠⁠ ⁠ @thenicoleweston⁠⁠

In honour of Tracy- Tara's mom Tara is the creator of On Fridays We Dance, a movement born from heartbreak, healing, and the courage to finally feel it all. For the past 15 years she has been fostering connection through her design business, helping people create spaces that feel deeply personal and alive. After losing her daughter Harper, and then her mom just one year later, Tara spent years pushing her grief down — before learning to honor it in the way it deserved to be seen and felt.She began sharing her story and a weekly dance as a way to process her pain and rediscover her joy. Through honest storytelling and unapologetically offbeat dance breaks, Tara helps others feel seen in their own grief and trauma — reminding us all that healing isn't about moving on. It's about moving with.EPISODE OVERVIEWIn this episode, Nicole sits down with Tara for a conversation that is raw, real, and deeply moving. Tara carries compound grief, the loss of her daughter Harper followed just one year later by the loss of her mom, and she brings all of it into this space without apology. This is a conversation about what it looks like to grieve in layers, to numb and then finally feel, and to discover that joy and grief can exist in the very same moment.Tara shares how five years ago she quit drinking, and when the numbing stopped, the real healing could finally begin. She talks about the kitchen dance parties she had with her mom, and how On Fridays We Dance grew from a moment of silliness between friends into a deeply healing, community-building practice that has touched thousands of people.WHAT YOU'LL HEAR IN THIS EPISODETara's experience of compound grief — losing her daughter and her mom within a year of each otherHow she spent years in survival mode, pushing her grief down to hold her family togetherThe turning point that came five years ago when she stopped numbing and started truly feelingHow On Fridays We Dance was born from kitchen dance parties with her mom — and became a healing movementThe truth that grief is not linear — it comes in layers like an onion, and the body knows when you're ready for moreWhy joy and grief can live in the same hand at the same timeThe power of being witnessed — and why "I see you" can be the most healing words someone can sayHow her community on Instagram became a lifeline: "I don't feel so alone"A MOMENT THAT WILL STAY WITH YOU"Healing isn't about moving on. It's about moving with." Tara's story shows us that grief doesn't end on a timeline. Fifteen years in, she is still dancing with it — and that is not a sign of failure. It is a sign of love.CONNECT WITH TARAFollow Tara on Instagram and join the On Fridays We Dance movement, a community that shows up every week to feel it all, laugh through it, cry through it, and dance through it together. https://www.instagram.com/taraporterofficial/Connect with Nicole:Register for Nicole’s free Masterclass: She’s Dead. Now what? May 6th @12pm ET ⁠https://www.nicoleweston.ca/masterclassgrief⁠Book a free 20 minute introductory call with Nicole https://nicoleweston.as.me/introductorycallNicole's free Anger Workbook Guide: ⁠nicoleweston.ca/workbook⁠Website: ⁠www.nicoleweston.ca⁠Instagram: ⁠ @thenicoleweston⁠Produced by Nicole Weston & Co-Produced by Hunter BlackettPhotography by Heather Whitcombe⁠ ⁠⁠https://www.whitcombecreative.com/⁠⁠If This Episode Resonated: Please subscribe, leave a review, and share this with a woman in your life who is carrying this. You know someone who lost her mom during Covid and has never had a space to talk about it. Send it to her. Every share reaches another motherless mother who is searching for this community.

Nobody warned you about the rage.Not the sadness — you expected that. But the anger? The kind that makes you look at a picture of your mom and say *fuck you for leaving me?* That part, nobody talks about.In this raw, honest solo episode, Nicole Weston opens up about the grief emotion she was least prepared for — the rage that followed her mom's death and refused to move no matter how many books she read, groups she joined, or therapy sessions she attended. Five years out, from a deeply integrated place, Nicole reflects on what that anger was really doing for her, why it's okay to be furious at someone you love who died, and what happens when your inner spark starts to go quiet.This episode gives you full permission to be exactly where you are — and offers real, practical tools for honoring your anger without letting it define you.There's not a lot of spaces where you can openly talk about how angry you are at your dead mom. I'm the one that's living. I'm the one going through the emotions. And if I don't move it, it's going to move me" - Nicole WestonIn This Episode- Why Nicole was blindsided by the intensity of her grief rage — even as a trained coach who teaches emotional processing every day- The second year: why it hit harder than the first, and how perfectionism made it worse- What to do when the books, groups, and therapy aren't moving the anger- How survival mode creeps in slowly — and how your spark starts to go out without you noticing- Why being angry at your mom for dying is not a character flaw — it is love with nowhere to go- The moment Nicole realized: *thank you, rage. You kept me alive.- Practical tools to release anger safely, without judgment- Why your emotional map is one of the most powerful tools you have in griefConnect with Nicole:Register for Nicole’s free Masterclass: She’s Dead. Now what? May 6th @12pm ET ⁠https://www.nicoleweston.ca/masterclassgrief⁠Book a free 20 minute introductory call with Nicole https://nicoleweston.as.me/introductorycallNicole's free Anger Workbook Guide: ⁠nicoleweston.ca/workbook⁠Website: ⁠www.nicoleweston.ca⁠Instagram: ⁠ @thenicoleweston⁠Produced by Nicole Weston & Co-Produced by Hunter BlackettPhotography by Heather Whitcombe⁠ ⁠⁠https://www.whitcombecreative.com/⁠⁠If This Episode Resonated: Please subscribe, leave a review, and share this with a woman in your life who is carrying this. You know someone who lost her mom during Covid and has never had a space to talk about it. Send it to her. Every share reaches another motherless mother who is searching for this community.

Some episodes ask big questions. This one just slows everything down.Episode 2 of Can't Call Your Mom is a love note — to you, to your inner child, and to your mom. Nicole opens with something simple and profound: grief needs to be witnessed. Not fixed. Not rushed. Witnessed.In this softer, more intimate episode, Nicole shares the healing practice of expression — why saying the things out loud, in a journal, in a voice note, or to a trusted witness, is one of the most powerful tools we have on this grief journey. She also does something deeply vulnerable: she calls her mom. She leaves her a voicemail — live, unscripted, from the heart — and invites you to do the same.This episode is permission. Permission to slow down. To say the things you are still carrying. To let yourself be seen — not as someone who has it figured out, but as someone who loved deeply and is still loving through the loss.Why grief needs witnesses — not solutions — and how to ask for that from the people you trustThe power of expression: journaling, voice notes, and verbally processing your grief as a tool for healingNicole's story of standing in line at Life Labs alone during fertility testing — and the moment her mom's name was calledThe complicated experience of receiving signs from the other side — and why those moments can be both comforting and heartbreaking, especially in the early yearsNicole's live, unscripted voicemail to her mom — raw, real, and full of loveWhat it means to be a generational cycle breaker — and how grief is teaching her family to do love differentlyThe invitation: what do you need to say to your mom that you haven't yet?The closing reminder: you are not failing. Your heart is healing."Grief doesn't need an audience — but it does get lighter when we witness it and hold it together. Those two powerful words: me too. I feel that. You're not alone in this. That's when healing happens." — Nicole WestonIf there are things you wish you could still say to your mom, Nicole invites you to say them anyway. Write them in a journal. Record a voice note in your notes app. Say them out loud in the car. Let the words exist somewhere — because sometimes the most healing thing we can do is say them, even now.If you're open to sharing, send Nicole a voice note. She may read or play it in a future episode. Your words might be exactly what another woman needs to hear.About NicoleNicole Weston is a transformational Life Coach, Quantum Change Process™ practitioner, and the founder of Can't Call Your Mom. She is also a mom, a wife, a business owner, and a motherless mother, a woman who has done the deep work of integrating grief and ambition, and who now walks other women through that same transformation. Connect with Nicole:Register for Nicole’s free Masterclass: She’s Dead. Now what? May 6th @12pm ET ⁠https://www.nicoleweston.ca/masterclassgrief⁠Book a free 20 minute introductory call with Nicole https://nicoleweston.as.me/introductorycallNicole's free Anger Workbook Guide: ⁠nicoleweston.ca/workbook⁠Website: ⁠www.nicoleweston.ca⁠Instagram: ⁠ @thenicoleweston⁠Produced by Nicole Weston & Co-Produced by Hunter BlackettPhotography by Heather Whitcombe⁠ ⁠⁠https://www.whitcombecreative.com/⁠⁠If This Episode Resonated: Please subscribe, leave a review, and share this with a woman in your life who is carrying this. You know someone who lost her mom during Covid and has never had a space to talk about it. Send it to her. Every share reaches another motherless mother who is searching for this community.

Welcome to Can't Call Your Mom, the podcast for women who are living, loving, and leading after losing their mom. For the motherless mothers who are raising babies, running businesses, and showing up for everyone else, all while carrying a grief most of the world doesn't have space for.I'm Nicole Weston, transformational life coach, mother, wife, business owner, and a motherless mother just like you. I searched for a place where I could bring all of me, the grief and the ambition, the healing and the hustle. I couldn't find it. So I built it.This isn't a grief support group. It's not a business podcast. It's not a parenting show. It's all of those things and none of those things. It's a space for the whole woman, the one who holds it all and finally has somewhere to set it down. Each week you can expect episodes designed to bring you connection, hope, desire and action. I will share insights, love notes and interviews with women who are doing the deep work, integrating who they were before loss with who they are becoming. Because you don't have to choose between healing and ambition. You never did.Grief is heavy and it gets lighter when we carry it together. This is the podcast you've been searching for. And this is your community.New episodes every week. Subscribe now and share this with a woman in your life who needs to hear it — because I promise you, you know someone who does.Can't Call Your Mom, because grief is not the end of your story. It's the beginning of your becoming.Love Nicole