Last Day is turning five! From investigating America’s deaths of despair to featuring real-life stories of hope and change, the journey of Last Day has been kinda unbelievable. All the tears! All the laughter! And all of you! We’re so grateful to our loyal listeners who have come along with us for the ride. To celebrate, we are counting down five of our staff’s favorite Last Day episodes of all time. This week, you’ll hear Lina’s story introduced by Wendolyne, Lemonada’s business operations manager.

Growing up, Lina Martinez treasured holidays spent with her family. She remembers the food, the ornaments, the dancing, and — above all – her dad, who made everything warmer and brighter. Year round, her dad Luis was her person, her best friend. But when Luis fell ill shortly before Christmas, Lina could already tell her holidays were going to look different from then on. Lina shares with Stephanie what it was like to receive and lose the most important kind of love in her life, and how she makes space for her grief, even during the most “wonderful” time of the year.

Follow Stephanie on Instagram at @wittelstephanie. Stay up to date with us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @LemonadaMedia.

Joining Lemonada Premium is a great way to support our show and get bonus content. Subscribe today at bit.ly/lemonadapremium. And if you want to continue the conversation with other listeners, join the My Lemonada community at https://lemonadamedia.com/mylemonada/

For a list of current sponsors and discount codes for this and every other Lemonada show, go to lemonadamedia.com/sponsors.

To follow along with a transcript, go to www.lemonadamedia.com/show/lastday shortly after the air date.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, we’re sharing a story from another podcast near and dear to our hearts. Love Letters, from The Boston Globe, shares stories from real life people. Host Meredith Goldstein hears from people about dating, relationships and falling in love. Tooky Kavanagh is one of the people, and she had her own Last Day moment in 2014. After years of being told she wasn’t enough – good enough, smart enough, pretty enough – Tooky discovered that, yeah, actually, she was enough. This revelation came in the unlikeliest of places: the basement of a burger place, at a comedy open mic night. For the first time, Tooky could see who she was supposed to be.

Find out more about Love Letters here.

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Carrie and Joe were college sweethearts who made a picture-perfect family. They worked and saved to pay for their kids’ sports, vacations, and everything in between. Then, after over a decade of marriage, Carrie stumbled upon the secret that compromised everything they built. Carrie shares with Stephanie how her husband’s betrayal left her with absolutely nothing – not a roof over her head, or answers from her life partner about why he deceived her.

Follow Stephanie on Instagram at @wittelstephanie. Stay up to date with us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @LemonadaMedia.

Have a story you want to share? Head to bit.ly/lastdaystories to fill out our confidential Google form.

Joining Lemonada Premium is a great way to support our show and get bonus content. Subscribe today at bit.ly/lemonadapremium. And if you want to continue the conversation with other listeners, join the My Lemonada community at https://lemonadamedia.com/mylemonada/

For a list of current sponsors and discount codes for this and every other Lemonada show, go to lemonadamedia.com/sponsors.

To follow along with a transcript, go to www.lemonadamedia.com/show/lastday shortly after the air date.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.