Sep 7

Let Love Keep Moving: Linda, 9/11, and Twenty-Five Years Later

On the 25th anniversary of September 11, 2001, Thérèse reflects on a date that folds twenty-five years into a single breath. Picking up where Season One's "Echoes of 9/11" left off, this episode moves past the immediate aftermath of the tragedy to examine the decades that followed—grieving while caregiving, becoming a person your loved one never got to meet, and learning to carry love and loss side-by-side. Thérèse honors the full life of her best friend, Linda Anne Luzzicone, unpacks the Dual Process Model of grief, and explores how the body holds onto time-linked anniversary reactions. Rather than seeking "closure," she shares how building a continuing bond allows love to evolve. To mark this milestone, Thérèse invites listeners to transform grief into action through simple, random acts of kindness—giving love a place to land and ensuring our loved ones continue to bring light into the world. What You’ll Learn / Key Highlights: Beyond the Biography: Remembering Linda Anne Luzzicone as a vibrant best friend, beyond the public narrative of Cantor Fitzgerald and the North Tower. When Grief Has to Wait: The unique burden caregivers face when public tragedy intersects with private family emergencies. The Dual Process Model: Why oscillating between acute sorrow and moments of everyday joy is a healthy, natural part of grieving. Anniversary Reactions & the Body: Understanding how time-linked reminders impact sleep, mood, and stress—and how to give yourself grace. The Grief of Growing Older Alone: Navigating the bittersweet reality of building a life, reaching milestones, and running marathons that your person never got to witness. Continuing Bonds Over Closure: How to let loved ones remain part of your story without keeping your life frozen in time. Let Love Keep Moving: A call to action for September 11th—and every day after—to honor those we’ve lost through quiet acts of kindness. Connect & Share: If this episode touched your heart, share an act of kindness in memory of someone you love this week. Join our growing community: NewYorkGirlAgain.com Follow us on social media: FB @NewYorkGirlAgain; IG @NYGirlAgainSubscribe & Review: If you're finding comfort here, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify to help other caregivers find this community.

Aug 31

If Caregiving Ended but You Still Feel Lost, Start Here

When caregiving ends, why doesn’t life simply go back to normal? What happens when the appointments stop, the alarms go quiet, and everyone assumes you’ve moved on—yet you still feel lost, exhausted, or changed? In this reintroduction episode of New York Girl Again – The After, host Thérèse—a Registered Nurse, Certified Grief Educator, and former 25-year family caregiver—names the deeply overlooked life stage that begins once active caregiving ends. In this episode, we explore: What "The After" Really Means: Moving past standard bereavement into a distinct, real-world life stage.The Post-Crisis Paradox: Why former caregivers often collapse after the emergency is over, not during it.Who This Show Is For: Navigating identity loss, sudden silence, and the question of who am I now?Where We're Going: Upcoming topics covering grief, identity, nervous system regulation, money, career, family conflict, health anxiety, purpose, and joy.No forced positivity. No timetable. Just honesty, compassion, useful knowledge, and the stubborn belief that the end of caregiving is not the end of you. Connect & Share Your Story: NewYorkGirlAgain.comFacebook: @NewYorkGirlAgainInstagram: @NYGirlAgain

Aug 24

Movement Is Healing: Rest Is Part of the Rebuild

In this episode of New York Girl Again – The After, the Movement Is Healing series comes to a close with the one part of healing caregivers often struggle to allow: rest. After caregiving ends, the house may be quieter, the alarms may stop, and no one may need us in the same way — but our bodies do not always get the message right away. We may still feel alert, responsible, braced, and unable to fully come down. This episode explores why rest is not laziness, weakness, or falling behind. Rest is repair. Rest is recovery. Rest is how the body absorbs the healing work of movement. From broken caregiver sleep to nervous system recovery, muscle repair, and the quiet discomfort of stillness in the after, this episode is a reminder that we cannot build a new life on a body we keep treating like an emergency vehicle. As the Movement Is Healing series closes, we remember this: rest is not the opposite of movement. Rest is what allows movement to heal us. Follow along at NewYorkGirlAgain.com, join the community, and connect with me on social media as we continue talking about caregiving, healing, and life in the after. Please also consider supporting my Team for Kids NYC Marathon fundraiser. Every donation helps children discover confidence, strength, joy, and community through movement. https://fundraisers.nyrr.org/NYGirlAgain

Aug 17

Movement Is Healing: The Water Holds What We Carry

In this episode of New York Girl Again – The After, our Movement Is Healing series continues with the kind of movement that doesn't ask us to push harder, move faster, or prove anything. This week, we are stepping into the water—the pool, the lake, the ocean, or wherever our bodies can feel supported instead of demanded from. For caregivers in the after, so much of life has been about holding on: Holding worry and fear Holding grief and responsibility Holding ourselves together because someone else needed us to Water offers something completely different. It lifts the body. It quiets the noise. It reminds us that healing does not always have to come from effort—sometimes healing begins when we finally allow ourselves to be supported. In this episode, I share how the pool I originally built for my Dad during caregiving became, in the 'after', one of my own most healing places. What began as an act of love for him has come full circle to help me restore myself. This week, we are letting the water hold what we carry. Connect & Support: Share the Episode: If this conversation speaks to you, please share it with a friend or caregiver who needs a gentle reminder that they deserve softness, support, and joy. Join Our Community: Visit NewYorkGirlAgain.com and follow along on social media for more encouragement on healing, movement, and rebuilding life in the after. Support Team for Kids: Consider donating to my Team for Kids NYC Marathon fundraiser. Every contribution helps children discover confidence, strength, joy, and community through movement: Donate Here: https://fundraisers.nyrr.org/NYGirlAgain

Aug 9

Movement Is Healing: Walking Yourself Back to Life

In this episode of New York Girl Again – The After, the Movement Is Healing series continues with one of the simplest and most powerful forms of movement there is: walking. For caregivers in the 'after', walking can become so much more than exercise. After years of caring for someone else, it can be one of the first gentle ways we begin caring for ourselves again. Each step becomes a small return back into our body, back into our own rhythm, and back toward a life that still has endless potential. Sometimes beginning again starts with putting one foot in front of the other. This episode is also deeply personal, as I share how walking helped me move through grief after my Dad’s passing, how my dogs helped get me back outside, and how walking is now part of my journey toward completing the New York City Marathon with the amazing charity Team for Kids. This is a walk/run journey. A rebuilding story. A reminder that you do not have to run to be moving forward, and you do not have to be fast to be brave. I am fundraising $4,000 for Team for Kids, which supports youth and community running programs that help children build confidence, health, discipline, joy, and a lifelong relationship with movement. To support my NYC Marathon journey with Team for Kids, please donate here: https://fundraisers.nyrr.org/NYGirlAgainBecause sometimes healing begins when you put on your shoes, open the door, and take one step back toward yourself. The after was never the end. It is just the beginning.

Jul 27

Movement Is Healing: Strong for Myself Now

In this episode of New York Girl Again – The After, the Movement Is Healing series continues with a different kind of movement: strength training. After exploring dance, joy, body image, and the courage to be seen, this episode turns toward strength — not as something intimidating or complicated, but as a way of caring for the body that carried us through survival. For caregivers in the after, strength is complicated. We already know how to be strong for everyone else. But now comes a different kind of strength: the kind we choose for ourselves. This episode explores how strength training supports longevity, balance, fall prevention, independence, confidence, and self-trust as we age. It also offers simple ways to begin at home with a chair, a wall, resistance bands, cans of food, water bottles, or grocery bags. The body that carried survival deserves to be rebuilt with tenderness. Caregiving made me strong because I had to be. Strength training is helping me become strong because I choose to be. If this episode speaks to you, please like, comment, subscribe, and share it with someone who may need a reminder that strength is still possible. Connect with New York Girl Again: Website: NewYorkGirlAgain.com Instagram: @NYGirlAgain Facebook: @NewYorkGirlAgain

Jul 19

Movement Is Healing: The Courage to Be Seen

This week on New York Girl Again – The After, we continue the Movement Is Healing series with Theresa Gratton, the owner and creative genius behind Flying Fabrics by Theresa, and a lifelong dancer with over 40 years of experience. Last time, we explored dance as a way to get out of our heads and back into our bodies. This week, Theresa joins me to continue that conversation through her lifelong relationship with movement, creativity, expression, beauty, and the courage to be seen. Together, we talk about dance, confidence, body image, starting something new, and what movement can awaken in us. For caregivers in the After, this conversation is about more than dance. It is about beginning again, reconnecting with ourselves, letting ourselves be seen, and remembering that our bodies are not only here to endure — they are also here to express, to feel, and to carry joy. To see Theresa, the stunning flying fabrics, and the beautiful photos that bring this conversation to life, watch the video version of this episode on New York Girl Again - the After's channel on YouTube: https://youtu.be/3aIN-rQkBe8 Connect with New York Girl Again: Website: NewYorkGirlAgain.com Instagram: @NYGirlAgain Facebook: @NewYorkGirlAgain Connect with Theresa Gratton / Flying Fabrics by Theresa: Website: FlyingFabrics.com Instagram/Facebook: @flyingfabricsbytheresa

Jul 5

Movement Is Healing: Out of Your Head, Into Your Body

For years, caregiving forces you to live entirely in your head—scanning the room, anticipating emergencies, managing schedules, and predicting what could go wrong next. But what happens to the body that carried you through all that survival? In the Season 2 premiere of our summer series, Movement Is Healing, Thérèse explores how grief, burnout, and long seasons of care live physically in our shoulders, our backs, and our nervous systems—and why the mind sometimes cannot think its way into joy. The body has to move toward it first. Tune in as we dive into the fascinating neuroscience behind dance, how it rewires a weary brain, and why stepping onto a dance floor (or just swaying in your kitchen) is a powerful, evidence-based act of reclaiming who you are in "the after." In this episode, we discuss: The Caregiver's Brain: How caregiving trains us to live in the past and future, and how movement pulls us back into the healing power of now. The Science of Dance: The executive function, motor planning, and emotional release triggered when we move to a rhythm. Belonging and Connection: Navigating the unique loneliness of the after-caregiving chapter through shared movement and awkward learning. The 3-Minute Kitchen Invitation: A gentle, zero-judgment challenge to help your body remember joy before your mind fully believes it’s possible. A Note for the Week: "You do not have to get every step right to keep moving beautifully." Connect with us: Website: NewYorkGirlAgain.com Instagram: @NYGirlAgain Facebook: @NewYorkGirlAgain Mentioned in this Episode: Learn more about Theresa Gratton and her stunning visual work at www.flyingfabrics.com Enjoyed this episode? Please leave a 5-star rating and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify! It helps other caregivers in "the after" find our community.

New York Girl Again - The After

Let Love Keep Moving: Linda, 9/11, and Twenty-Five Years Later

If Caregiving Ended but You Still Feel Lost, Start Here

Movement Is Healing: Rest Is Part of the Rebuild

Movement Is Healing: The Water Holds What We Carry

Movement Is Healing: Walking Yourself Back to Life

Movement Is Healing: Strong for Myself Now

Movement Is Healing: The Courage to Be Seen

Movement Is Healing: Out of Your Head, Into Your Body

About

Information

New York Girl Again - The After

Episodes

Let Love Keep Moving: Linda, 9/11, and Twenty-Five Years Later

If Caregiving Ended but You Still Feel Lost, Start Here

Movement Is Healing: Rest Is Part of the Rebuild

Movement Is Healing: The Water Holds What We Carry

Movement Is Healing: Walking Yourself Back to Life

Movement Is Healing: Strong for Myself Now

Movement Is Healing: The Courage to Be Seen

Movement Is Healing: Out of Your Head, Into Your Body

About

Information