Climbing Out of the Dark Hole

About this episode

The episode explores Bea Burnham's journey through grief and resilience after the loss of her husband and her impact on her daughters and friends.

When Bea Burnham walked up to her house one day, she saw her husband of 30-plus years lying dead in the lawn. That stopped her world from spinning for a while, but she pulled herself up, fixed what needed to be fixed and got on with life, eventually outliving three more husbands. She worked hard and taught her daughters about women’s rights. She took care of her friends in their grief. She was buried in her fur coat and shaved her legs one swipe at a time, so that it was always in progress. After her dearth, her daughters come to a new understanding about a mom who carved her own way. Reported and narrated by Elinor Smith, UM Journalism alum former host and reporter at Montana Public Radio. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

People in this episode

Host: Elinor Smith

Topics covered

• grief
• women's rights
• family
• loss
• resilience

Keywords

• grief
• loss
• women's rights
• resilience
• family

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Montana Public Radio

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