Giving Grief Grace
Giving Grief Grace is a heartfelt podcast offering a safe space where stories of love, loss, light, and healing are shared with compassion and empathy. In each episode, honest conversations woven with nurturing insights create a safe haven, fostering a community of support where sorrow is met with kindness, and the path to healing is approached with utmost care, respect, and love.
Giving Grief Grace
Episode 53 - The Little Things Are the Big Things: Obituaries with Mary McGreevy of Tips from Dead People
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What if the most profound life lessons you ever received came from the dead? In this episode of Giving Grief Grace, Lisa sits down with Mary McGreevy, the creator of @tipsfromdeadpeople and author of an upcoming HarperCollins book (August 2027), to explore what over 10,000 obituaries have taught her about grief, imperfection, and what it means to live a life well-lived.
Mary shares the origin story behind her viral social media account, born from her mother's brief career as an obituary editor and Mary's own childhood fascination with the stories hiding in the back pages of the newspaper. Now with over 400,000 followers across platforms, Mary is on a mission to remind us: you are more than your worst chapter, and you are absolutely more than your LinkedIn profile and resume.
Together, Lisa and Mary talk about:
- The themes that surface most often across thousands of obituaries
- What happened when Mary posted, "How do you learn to live without your mom?" after losing her own mother in November 2024, and the 2,000+ comments that became a masterclass in grief
- Why the best obituaries name the hard stuff: addiction, estrangement, regret, and how that honesty allows readers to feel a deeper sense of connection with the individual
- The obituary of Trish, Mary's "patron saint" of Tips from Dead People, and why two simple lists of loves and hates tell you everything about a person
- Mary's complicated feelings about AI-written obituaries (and animated dead people)
- The book offer that arrived three days after her mom died, and what she believes about that timing
This episode is tender, funny, and full of permission to be exactly as messy and as human as you already are.
Connect with Mary:
- Instagram/TikTok/YouTube: @tipsfromdeadpeople
- Substack: https://tipsfromdeadpeople.substack.com/
- Obituary inspiration & more: https://linktr.ee/tipsfromdeadpeople
- Book: coming August 2027 from HarperCollins
Thanks for tuning in, your time is valuable and we are so grateful for you!
Please share this episode with a friend or someone who could use a hug. You are not alone.
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Special thanks to:
Podcast Editor Jacqueline van Bierk of Pink Star Music
Podcast Music Good_B_Music
