041 Brilliant, Beautiful, and Bad Ass!

About this episode

This episode features a conversation with Virginia DeLuca about reinventing life after heartbreak and the power of creativity in the face of grief.

What does it look like to reinvent your life after heartbreak — boldly, honestly, and on your own terms? To publish a memoir in your 70s that makes people laugh and weep? To tell the truth about love, loss, aging, and identity without flinching? In this episode of Emerging with Grace!, we sit down with the remarkable Virginia DeLuca — award-winning author and psychotherapist— for a conversation that is equal parts wisdom, warmth, and unapologetic fire. Brilliant, Beautiful, and Bad Ass Virginia's writing has graced the pages of The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Modern Love, and The Huffington Post. Her memoir, If You Must Go, I Wish You Triplets, is a sharp, funny, and deeply human portrait of marriage, divorce, aging, and the unexpected power of starting over — proving that reinvention has no expiration date. This is a conversation about courage as a creative act. About how grief can become the soil for your most luminous work. About women across every culture and generation who carry the spark of life and refuse to let circumstances extinguish it. This episode is for every woman navigating a life transition — whether you're 30, 60, or somewhere beautifully in between for…

People in this episode

Host: Marquita Garrett Ph.D.

Guest: Virginia DeLuca

Topics covered

• reinvention
• heartbreak
• memoir
• aging
• identity
• courage
• women's empowerment

Keywords

• reinvention
• heartbreak
• memoir
• aging
• identity
• courage
• women
• life transitions
• Virginia DeLuca

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Modern Love, The Huffington Post

Books & works: If You Must Go, I Wish You Triplets

More episodes of Emerging with Grace: Navigating Life's Transitions

• 042 The Scarlett A: School Closure: Real Stories & Aftermath · June 4, 2026 · 45 min
• 040 The $300 Wake-Up Call: From Financial Striving to Thriving · March 17, 2026 · 45 min
• 039 Three Attacks. One Comeback · March 3, 2026 · 54 min
• 038 1,260 Days: When the Wilderness Became the Birthplace of Purpose · February 17, 2026 · 47 min
• 037 Big Mouth, Bigger Vision: How Dr. Bobbi Peterson Reimagined Oral Health · February 3, 2026 · 43 min
• 036 Fifty Years In Harmony: A Life Led By Faith and Music · January 13, 2026 · 45 min