The Trimesters of Grief
When Katie Rizzo’s life was turned upside down by the death of her oldest son from opioid addiction, as a scientist and writer she fell back on what she knew: documenting, looking for patterns, and poetry. In The Trimesters of Grief, Rizzo shows how grief mirrors pregnancy, from whole-body fatigue to brain fog to the need to tell everyone about this precious life—a life that is now gone. And then it is time to “deliver” grief and let it sit beside us.
Part memoir and part self-help book, The Trimesters of Grief suggests ways to communicate and nurture grief. Other cultures embrace grief as a natural part of life; perhaps it’s time for us to also learn to hold life in one hand and grief in the other.
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there are
over eight billion people
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them are you.
Praise for The Trimesters of Grief
“Katie has a wonderful story… if i were to put a title it I think I would have to declare, "The pen is mightier than victimhood” - Richard Tierney from the podcast Trauma Recovery Anonymous
“As both a grieving mother and a grief coach, I’ve long thought of Beautiful Boy as a touchstone for families living with addiction—but it is also a story of survival. Katie’s book is the one we’ve been missing for the age of opioids and fentanyl: a mother’s story that does not have the same ending, told with ferocious honesty and an eye for what might actually help the rest of us keep breathing. Her “trimesters of grief” framework gave me language for what my body and mind were already doing after loss. This is the book I wish I could hand to every parent who has just gotten the call; it stands beside Beautiful Boy as its necessary, devastating counterpart.” - Kristin Seeberger, LITT Grief Group Leader and Private Peer Support
“Your words, resilience and truth are powerful. Nicholas's life experiences will mirror so many others in the world. Many feel so isolated and alone, like no-one in the world understands.Your book will make them feel seen in a deeply powerful and human way. Thank you for sharing your son Nicholas, your family and your grief. I see you.” Sadie Rowbottom, The Grief Coach, The Grief Lounge Podcast
“"When Katie Rizzo lost her eldest son, Nicholas, to opioid addiction, her world didn't simply break, it became unrecognizable terrain. As a scientist, she searched for patterns. As a writer, she searched for words. And as a mother, she searched for her son in a world that no longer held him. From that impossible journey comes The Trimesters of Grief, a profoundly original, vulnerable, and deeply compassionate exploration of love after unimaginable loss. Drawing a striking parallel between pregnancy and bereavement, Rizzo reveals how grief inhabits the body, clouds the mind, reshapes identity, and demands to be lugged around before it can ever gently sit beside us.
Part memoir, part guide, and wholly human, Rizzo gives voice to the silent heartbreak experienced by millions of families living in the shadow of addiction. With piercing honesty, she reminds readers that even after devastating loss, love never dies. It simply changes the way it lives within us." - Stephen Panus, author of the critically-acclaimed Walk On.
“I cried several times reading this memoir, but I also laughed out loud. “ - Colin Campbell Author of Finding the Words: Working Through Profound Loss with Hope and Purpose
“The way you capture grief, love, and the quiet, luminous moments of winter embodies the essence of Aurora, the pause between endings and beginnings, where reflection meets hope.”
Prosetrics, The Literary Magazine
“The most unflinching account of loss I have ever encountered. It chronicles one mother’s transformation through the most profound change imaginable, the death of a child.” Mary SchaubFractals of Change Podcast
Katie's story gives voice to parents living every day with fear, hope, heartbreak, and unimaginable love. // This book is for those who have lost someone to addiction, but it's also for those of us who survived it. Reading these pages made me grateful I got another chance - and reminded me never to waste it.” Cyn Posner, author of 'It's Messy in Here'
About the Author
Katie Rizzo
Katie Rizzo is a fiction writer whose short stories have appeared in literary journals including Prosetrics,The Literary Magazine (January 2026), as well as in anthologies such as the HG Wells Short Story Competition (2023). She earned juried placements at the Aspen Words Conference in 2023 and 2025.
Trained in biology and psychology, Rizzo earned a master’s degree from Yale University and completed MSII at the University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine. She taught at her local public high school for over fifteen years and lives in Arizona with her husband and their two dogs.