Episode Details

What does it mean to love someone through the end of their life? How do we hold joy and heartbreak at the same time?

In this profoundly moving episode of Grief 2 Growth, host Brian D. Smith speaks with Tony Stewart, author of Carrying the Tiger: Living with Cancer, Dying with Grace, Finding Joy While Grieving. Tony shares the intimate journey he and his wife Lynn traveled after her diagnosis with incurable lung cancer.

Together, they navigated six years of life lived fully in the shadow of death—a journey filled with courage, creativity, and deep connection.

This episode will move your heart, shift your perspective on illness and loss, and help you see grief as something that can deepen our capacity for love.

💡 What You’ll Learn:

• How a Tai Chi metaphor helped inspire the title Carrying the Tiger 🐅
• What it’s really like to care for a partner with terminal illness 💔
• Why Tony says those final years were the most beautiful of their relationship
• The emotional impact on caregivers—grief, guilt, and growth 💬
• How Tony gave himself permission to love again while holding Lynn in his heart 💞

🔗 Connect with Tony Stewart:

• 🌐 Website: tonystewartauthor.com
• 📘 Book: Carrying the Tiger — Available in [Print, eBook, and Audiobook (narrated by Tony)]
• 📥 Email Tony: tony@tonystewartauthor.com

🧠 Favorite Quotes

"I thought I had been buried. But maybe, like a seed, I’d been planted."
 — Brian D. Smith“We said ‘I love you’ more in one night than in 30 years of marriage.”
 — Tony Stewart“It was the saddest day of my life… and also the most sacred.”
 — Tony Stewart, on entering hospice

You've been listening. You're doing the work. But there's still this feeling that you're circling the same place.

Maybe you've thought about working with me one-on-one. Maybe something's held you back. 

I get that. And I want you to know there's still a place for you.

All of it, pay what you want. You decide what it's worth. Nobody gets turned away because of money.

https://grief2g

The International Association for Near-Death Studies or IANDS will host its annual conference at the Hyatt Regency in Bellevue.  The event features an all-star lineup of keynotes like Proof of Heaven Author Eben Alexander, MD, and Dying to Be Me Author Anita Moorjani. I Early bird registration rates are available through July 15.

Visit IANDS.org to register

The International Association for Near-Death Studies or IANDS will host its annual conference at the Hyatt Regency in Bellevue.  The event features an all-star lineup of keynotes like Proof of Heaven Author Eben Alexander, MD, and Dying to Be Me Author Anita Moorjani. I Early bird registration rates are available through July 15. 

Visit IANDS.org to register

Want to go deeper? My Substack is where I share solo essays on grief, consciousness, and continuing bonds — thoughts that don't always make it into the podcast. It's also home to a community of listeners who get it, because they're living it too. Free to subscribe. Find it at substack.com/grief2growth.

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