In this episode, Michele shares how difficult it was to find others who understand her grief as a newly bereaved widow, how she lost her sense of self, and the challenges she faced finding her new self.

Michele is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Soaring Spirits International, a non-profit organization providing peer support programming for widowed people worldwide, and is the author of Different After You: Rediscovering Yourself and Healing after Grief or Trauma published by New World Library in February of 2022. Her passion for supporting widowed people and the power of integration fuels her presentations and community activism.

Michele has received local, state, and national recognition for her work in founding Soaring Spirits, including a letter of recognition from then Vice President Joe Biden. In addition, Michele was named a 2021 Top Ten CNN Hero and was honored to share the stage with Wonder Woman, Lynda Carter.

Michele’s work is featured in an upcoming AppleTV docuseries and will be the focus of a PBS documentary available for streaming in 2023.

Michele resides in Simi Valley, California, and shares her life with her three amazing kids, their awesome partners, her grand-cats, and one very Australian husband.