After her daughter Kalia died by suicide at 24, Kirsten O’Connor began writing through the first year that followed. Those journals became The Year After Kalia, a memoir that combines lived experience, reflection, and writing practices for people navigating grief.In this conversation, Kirsten talks about the invisible rules we place around grieving, the guilt that can follow devastating loss, and what hindsight can make us believe we should have known. We discuss why writing became a private witness for the things she could not always say aloud, how her relationship with Kalia continues, and why saying the name of someone who died can be an act of connection rather than a painful reminder.This is a conversation about grief without a timetable, the stories we tell ourselves about responsibility, and learning to move with loss rather than expecting ourselves to move on from it.Purchase a copy of The Year After Kahlia here:https://bookshop.org/a/127484/9780473764609https://a.co/d/03I4QySRhttps://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-year-after-kahlia-surviving-loving-and-writing-my-way-through-loss-kirsten-oconnor/1148894926?ean=9780473764609Follow Kirstins work here:https://thisisgrief.nz/