We don’t talk about death, and we sure don’t talk about grief.
And we especially don’t talk about the kind that has no clear cause, no funeral, and no casserole on the doorstep. But maybe we should.
In this episode of the Magic Hour Podcast, I sit down with Sarah Savoy, end-of-life doula, educator, and founder of A Good Farewell, for a conversation that is equal parts tender and quietly transformative.
Sarah has dedicated her life to sitting with people in their most vulnerable moments, through caregiving, life-limiting illness, dying, and grief. But what we explore in this conversation goes far beyond death. It’s about how we live. The grief we absorb without realizing it. The joy we talk ourselves out of. And the quiet but radical act of choosing meaningful work over comfortable work.
We talk about what it really looks like to walk away from a successful business because something deeper is calling. Sarah shares the reality of her own midlife pivot — the gradual unravelling, the moment of clarity, and what it took to rebuild her life around work that truly reflects who she is. We also explore what it means to move through a society that is, as Sarah puts it, deeply grief illiterate. One that doesn’t give us the language, the permission, or the space to grieve the things that aren’t just the loss of a person — the loss of identity, of community, of the life we thought we were going to have.
This conversation also holds space for the grief we inherit. The kind passed down through generations without a word ever being spoken. And the micro joys that become the way we survive it all.
In this episode, we talk about:
- Walking away from a successful brick and mortar business to find heart-centred work
- The big G and the little G, understanding grief in all its forms
- Why our society is grief illiterate and what it costs us
- Cultural and intergenerational grief and the weight we carry without knowing it
- How to hold space for others without losing yourself
- Micro joys as a daily practice and a survival strategy
- The invisible weight of navigating grief while keeping up appearances
- How to let small joys back in without feeling like you’re betraying the pain
This one is for anyone who has ever felt like their grief was too complicated, too quiet, or too hard to explain. Sarah has a gift for making the heaviest things feel a little more possible to hold. I hope this conversation does the same for you.
Meet our magical guest
Sarah Savoy, Founder of a Good Farewell, Death Doula and End-Of-Life Support
Sarah Savoy is a Vancouver-based end-of-life doula, educator, and the founder of A Good Farewell. She serves people and families who are navigating caregiving, grief, life-limiting illness, and dying. She also facilitates community-based workshops and is passionate about normalizing conversations around death and dying so people can make informed choices, feel less alone, and approach the end of life with more clarity, agency, and care.
About A Good Farewell
A Good Farewell is a Vancouver-based end-of-life doula practice founded by Sarah Savoy. Sarah works with individuals and families navigating illness, caregiving, dying, and grief, offering what she describes as holistic, pragmatic, and tender support that honours your wishes and respects your journey.
At the heart of her work is a simple but profound belief: that everyone deserves to die with peace of mind, agency, and dignity. Sarah encourages honest, unguarded conversations about death, because she knows that when we come to terms with our mortality, not just intellectually but in our hearts, we often find ourselves living more presently.
She is also quick to remind people that you don’t need to have everything figured out before reaching out. Sometimes all it takes is something feeling uncertain or overwhelming, and needing a place to start.
Recommended Resources
Understanding Your Grief by Alan D. Wolfelt reframes grief not as a set of stages to move through, but as a deeply personal journey guided by ten touchstones, recognizing that no two people grieve the same way. Rather than encouraging people to get over loss, Wolfelt draws a distinction between grief as an internal experience and mourning as its outward expression, arguing that we must lean into the pain rather than away from it in order to heal. The book ultimately offers a compassionate reminder that people don’t get over grief so much as they learn to carry it, eventually finding a new sense of meaning and balance on the other side.
The “Grief Jar” that Sarah references can be found here. Dr. Lois Tonkin’s “Growing Around Grief” model suggests that grief never actually shrinks. Rather than the pain getting smaller, our life slowly expands around it, making room for joy and new experiences while the grief remains exactly as it always was.
Connect with Sarah:
Follow Sarah on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-savoy-3creative/
Follow Sarah on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/agoodfarewell_vancouver/
Visit A Good Farewell’s Website: agoodfarewell.ca
Listen now:
Listen now to the Magic Hour Podcast on Apple Podcast and Spotify.
This episode is brought to you by:
📝 This episode is sponsored by Flodesk. The beautiful, easy-to-use email marketing platform I swear by. Get a free month of Flodesk here: 💌 https://app.flodesk.com/sign-up?ref=UNICORNMARKETING
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