One Friday night in May 2008, Marie was puttering around getting ready to meet her husband at his sister's place for drinks. Then the phone rang.
A woman said "I'm calling from the West Shore RCMP and letting you know that we're charging your husband with first degree murder. Can you bring some clothes and his reading glasses to the jail sometime tomorrow?"
Marie was stunned. That was the beginning of a two year nightmare that haunts Marie to this day.
On Sweet Bitters we’re going to start with Marie’s story as we explore emotional pain through the personal stories of our own experiences. We’ll talk about addiction, abuse, self harm, assault, loss of faith, and betrayals. Sometimes it will be messy, sometimes confusing, a lot of time, it’ll be hard. And sometimes we’ll end up laughing. We’ll journey through the sadness and bitters but we’ll also talk about where you find the joys and triumphs, the sweets. Our goal over time is to start incorporating your stories and experiences into the podcast.
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One Friday night in May 2008, Marie was puttering around getting ready to meet her husband at his sister's place for drinks. Then the phone rang.
A woman said "I'm calling from the West Shore RCMP and letting you know that we're charging your husband with first degree murder. Can you bring some clothes and his reading glasses to the jail sometime tomorrow?"
Marie was stunned. That was the beginning of a two year nightmare that haunts Marie to this day.
On Sweet Bitters we’re going to start with Marie’s story as we explore emotional pain through the personal stories of our own experiences. We’ll talk about addiction, abuse, self harm, assault, loss of faith, and betrayals. Sometimes it will be messy, sometimes confusing, a lot of time, it’ll be hard. And sometimes we’ll end up laughing. We’ll journey through the sadness and bitters but we’ll also talk about where you find the joys and triumphs, the sweets. Our goal over time is to start incorporating your stories and experiences into the podcast.
For the first time in many years, Marie was living a life without grappling with her boys' drug addictions. Greg had been sober for three years and was working with his Dad and loving spending time with his kids. But one Monday, without warning, all that changed.
It's been five years since the darkest day of Marie's life. In this episode, she tells us what happened that day and her journey since.
WARNING: sensitive material about drug overdose and suicide.
Within a year of each other Marie's sons became addicted to drugs. In this episode we look at how that affected the whole family and how desperate Marie and Ken were to help them.
When Marie tells her story there's always an elephant in the room - her sons' drug addictions. In this episode Marie introduces us to her sons and tells us how they became addicted to drugs.
What happens when you have to fight the institutions you thought were there to protect you? Marie talks about losing faith in justice and journalism and the podcast draws the lines to current-day social justice movements.
Ken and his sons may have been found not guilty on all counts, but as Marie tells us, that didn’t mean their lives returned to normal. They still had a hefty price to pay, both financially and socially.
In Nov. 2009 Ken, Kenny and Greg entered the courtroom ready to stand trial on murder charges. What followed was testimony that was in some cases confused, some cases erroneous and some cases, just made up. A month later the judge rendered her verdict. In this episode we go through that verdict and reflect on the trial.
It took 33 days for Ken to be released on bail. In those 33 Days, Marie got a quick education about lawyers, reading about yourself in the morning paper, raising money, how prison works and how to write a kick-ass To-Do list. In this episode, Marie talks about what she packed into that 33 days.
In this episode we take you to the house on Betula Place the night of May 30, 2008. That's the night Marie's husband Ken found himself in the middle of a fight for his life. A fight that took the life of another man.
One phone call on a spring night and Marie's life exploded. Her journey to understand and live with the events that followed that night is the basis of Sweet Bitters.
In this introduction to the podcast series, Marie and Sue give the short version of Marie's story and talk about the philosophy behind the podcast.
One Friday night in May 2008, Marie was puttering around getting ready to meet her husband at his sister's place for drinks. Then the phone rang.
A woman said "I'm calling from the West Shore RCMP and letting you know that we're charging your husband with first degree murder. Can you bring some clothes and his reading glasses to the jail sometime tomorrow?"
Marie was stunned. That was the beginning of a two year nightmare that haunts Marie to this day.
On Sweet Bitters we’re going to start with Marie’s story as we explore emotional pain through the personal stories of our own experiences. We’ll talk about addiction, abuse, self harm, assault, loss of faith, and betrayals. Sometimes it will be messy, sometimes confusing, a lot of time, it’ll be hard. And sometimes we’ll end up laughing. We’ll journey through the sadness and bitters but we’ll also talk about where you find the joys and triumphs, the sweets. Our goal over time is to start incorporating your stories and experiences into the podcast.
