Content note: this episode discusses the loss of a partner to suicide.

Jennifer France never set out to write a book. In the year after her partner Ann Marie died by suicide in 2019, Jenn was isolated, shut out by Ann Marie’s friends, and unable to lean on her family. So she started writing to Ann Marie every day. Those journals became Faith, Hope and Love, a record of her first year of grief told through journal entries, photographs, and transcripts of readings with three psychic mediums.

Jenn tells Sarah and Jane about the signs that started arriving within days of Ann Marie’s death. A small purse she’d been told to leave behind turned up hanging in a shop window hours later. A vivid dream visit brought an odd phrase that her hairdresser repeated word for word the next day. Through all of it, Jenn began to notice a pattern: whatever she wrote in her journal seemed to get an answer within a day or two.

They also talk about Jenn going to her first medium as a guarded skeptic and leaving a believer. She describes how three very different mediums delivered the same information in their own styles, and how music became one of Ann Marie’s favorite ways to say she was still there. Jenn explains why she was never angry with Ann Marie. Eight years on, she feels like herself again, only bigger. And yes, Ann Marie may have had a hand in bringing Jenn her new partner, Shannon.

It’s a tender, honest conversation about surviving the unsurvivable and the love that keeps going.

Key takeaways

• Writing directly to a loved one in spirit can become a two-way conversation. Many people find that answers show up in the days after they put a question on paper.
• Dream visits often feel different from ordinary dreams: vivid, linear, and remembered in full detail. Writing them down right away lets you recognize confirmations when they arrive.
• Going to a reading as a skeptic is fine. Holding back reactions and letting the medium bring specific details only you and your loved one would know can make the experience more meaningful.
• Different mediums can bring through the same message in very different styles. Each reader’s personality shapes how spirit comes through.
• Grief doesn’t follow a straight line. Healing often comes in small steps forward and back, and tears can return years later.
• Choosing compassion over anger after a suicide loss is a personal path, not a requirement. For some people it opens the door to peace and continued connection.
• There is no single right way to grieve. The support that helps one person may not fit another, and finding what fits is part of the process.

Quotes

• “I really do believe that journaling opens up some type of door.” (Jenn)
• “I went in as a skeptic. But I came out a believer, a total believer.” (Jenn)
• “The other realm is not that far away.” (Jenn)
• “Grief has kind of a big faucet. It really doesn’t ever turn off.” (Jane)
• “We come here to grow and expand our consciousness.” (Jenn)
• “It’s a whole body feeling. You just know it.” (Jenn)

Links and resources

• Faith, Hope and Love by Jennifer France
• Jennifer France https://jennfrancewrites.com/
• Life With Ghosts documentary
• Induced After-Death Communication (IADC)
• Life After Suicide: Finding Courage, Comfort and Community After Unthinkable Loss by Dr. Jennifer Ashton
• If you or someone you love is struggling, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (US)

Medium Curious website: mediumcurious.com

Jane's website: janemorganmedium.com

Sarah's website: sarahrathke.com

Instagram: @mediumcuriouspod

YouTube: @mediumcurious

Rachel Stewart is back, almost exactly a year after her first visit, and this time the reunion started in person. Jane ran into her at the IANDS conference, a meeting Rachel almost skipped until two different podcast hosts, hours apart, told her it was happening in her backyard. That kind of nudge sets the tone for the whole conversation.

Since we last spoke, Rachel and her husband Shane have launched the 411 Together community, built around what they learned while finding their way back to their daughter Kennedy, who passed in 2018 at age ten. Rachel shares how it took her over a thousand days to accept a connection she now lives with daily, why she believes the little moments matter more than the big signs, and how Kennedy keeps showing up, including at her little sister's softball game in a very specific way. She also tells the story of a broken boat, a bee that wouldn't leave her window, a bank sign reading 4.11 percent, and the Jeep that convinced Shane to walk away from commercial fishing. Along the way: a manifesting practice that finally clicked for her, the case for raising kids who don't have to unlearn their connection to the other side, and why a "man's man" crying on camera about his daughter may be one of the most important things they share.

Key takeaways

• Grief and connection can coexist. Continuing a relationship with someone in spirit doesn't erase the loss, it gives the loss somewhere to go.
• You don't need a perfect meditation practice to stay connected. Small, everyday moments of openness, like talking to a loved one on a drive, build the relationship over time.
• A sign is often about timing, not the object. A feather is just a feather until it arrives at exactly the right moment.
• Hearing other people's stories lowers our guard. Many people connect faster once they see that it's real for others too.
• Kids who grow up with this as normal don't have to break a whole worldview to believe it, and adults can help by treating their experiences as real.
• Acting as if something has already happened can shift how you show up while you wait for it.
• Fear is part of the leap. Most people following their guidance don't know where it leads; they go anyway.
• When men talk openly about grief and connection, it gives others permission to do the same.

Quotes

• "I want every single person to know that they can continue the relationship if they want to. It's allowed, it's beautiful, it's natural." Rachel Stewart
• "It was her light that was missing. And I just didn't know I was allowed to let it back in." Rachel Stewart
• "You don't have to be doing those things to be connected to your loved one, because life is busy." Rachel Stewart
• "Sure, you could say that's just a feather, but it's the timing of everything." Rachel Stewart
• "There's fear in the unknown, but we do it anyways." Rachel Stewart
• "I do not feel alone, even if I'm standing in a very lonely spot." Jane Morgan
• "People need to be able to see these practices in motion." Sarah

Links and resources

• Rachel's first Medium Curious episode
• 411 Together community: https://for11together.com/
• Rachel and Shane on Instagram: @for11_together
• Rachel and Shane YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@For11_together
• IANDS (International Association for Near-Death Studies): iands.org

Medium Curious website: mediumcurious.com

Jane's website: janemorganmedium.com

Sarah's website: sarahrathke.com

Instagram: @mediumcuriouspod

YouTube: @mediumcurious