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Do you want to read stories of others who have been where you are? Are you looking for bereavement help, and advice? Look no further. We offer over 7,000 articles written by our Open to Hope authors.

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Where Do They Go?

Posted on September 14, 2017 - by Nina Impala

Recently, I have received phone calls from dear friends who have lost people they love. Lost. That word, it is so final, but do we really know? Still, there is that empty space of where are they? What’s it like? Are they happy and safe? It is so difficult to wrap our human brain around death. I believe that we do get signs. After 20-plus years working in hospice, helping the living and the dying, sometimes I witness and hear things that I know are straight from heaven. My girlfriend was taking care of her dear friend with cancer.  She […]

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Remembering the ‘Lasts’

Posted on September 13, 2017 - by Jennifer Stern

  The last words spoken. The last touch. The last meal shared. The last laugh. The last show watched. The lasts…moments and interactions that would otherwise go unnoticed in everyday life now sacred. Memories that, when lucky, we wish to bottle and protectively hold on a shelf. Untouched for eternity. Never dimmed. Never forgotten. Accessible to us, for us, always. Remembering those lasts can at times feel unbearable, oppressive, truly unendurable. IF ONLY I HAD KNOWN, I would have…I could have…I should have…. The magical thinking of grief and loss. Don’t get stuck there. In time, when the bevy of […]

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The Power of Stories in Coping With Loss

Posted on September 12, 2017 - by Jane P. Williams

We have an affinity for stories—they are the vehicle for making meaning out of chaos.  By late adolescence, most of us have developed a “life story” that gives us a sense of identity and reflects our explanation of how the world works.  This overarching story is not particularly factual, but rather consists of experiences that are remembered as being powerful and shaping our lives.  With these life events, we tend to construct and reconstruct our life story. One of the experiences that can impact our life story is the death of someone important to us.  We develop a grief story […]

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End-of-Life in the LGBT Community: Interview with Doneley Meris

Posted on September 12, 2017 - by Heidi Horsley

At the annual ADEC (Association of Death Education and Counseling), I spoke with Doneley Meris about the struggles and discrepancies those in the LGBT community deal with during end of life. Individuals who identify gay, bisexual, lesbian, or transgendered, are still looked at differently at the end of their lives despite the fact that there’s been a lot of advances in the area of same sex marriages and equality. The stigma and discrimination is still present when dealing when end of life situations. Doneley goes into more detail about this in the video below. Here are some key takeaways from […]

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911 Memorial

September 11th – 16 Years of Grief

Posted on September 11, 2017 - by Heidi Horsley

Sixteen years ago, our resilience as a country was tested when nearly 3,000 people were killed in the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks.  We have come a long way since then, and I have watched as NYC has rebuilt, and bereaved families have once again found hope. I was honored to spend ten years with 9/11 firefighter families, taking the grief journey with them.  Their grief came in waves, often knocking them down when they least expected it.  But these families kept going, and they leaned on, and supported other 9/11 families, much as TAPS families do.  It’s been 16 years, […]

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Death and Dying: Interview with Brian Barry MA

Posted on September 10, 2017 - by Heidi Horsley

At the annual ADEC (Association of Death Education and Counseling), I spoke with Brian Barry, who teaches death and dying at RIT in Rochester. Brian began to explore the field of death and dying after the passing of his mother, and he has been doing it for the past 35 years. When Barry’s mother passed away, he started to discover things about death and dying that he hadn’t noticed before. He goes into more detail about this in the video below. Here are some key highlights from the video: In a family, people have different roles which are difficult to […]

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Antonio Sausys: Healing the Body, Mind and Spirit

Posted on September 8, 2017 - by Heidi Horsley

During the 2015 Association for Death Education and Counseling conference, Dr. Heidi Horsley spoke with Antonio Sausys from Uruguay. Sausys operates a program that integrates yoga techniques and therapies that combine the mind, body and spirit “in order to help grievers go through the difficult process.” Contrary to popular belief, grief is not purely emotional—or even largely emotional at times. “It has so many important and massive involvements of the body,” he explains. Helping people sleep better, return to normalized eating habits and handle physical pain that often gathers in the chest area after a loss is Sausys’ specialty. The […]

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A Grandmother’s Pain of Infant Loss

Posted on September 6, 2017 - by Catherine McNulty

As part of my connection to Empty Cradle, an organization that supports pregnancy and infant loss in the San Diego area, I spend time facilitating support groups for those who are grieving the loss of their child.  When I joined the organization as a facilitator, my goal was to use my five years of experience of grief, loss, and recovery to help support others.  I know in my heart that my contribution has significant meaning to those who are suffering but I am also amazed that each time I attend, I walk away feeling as though I’ve been given the […]

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The Alzheimer’s Experience, Part I: ‘Which Island is This?’

Posted on September 5, 2017 - by Charles Patterson

  Henry Van Winkle came out of the men’s room and sat down in front of his-half empty glass of beer at the small table nearest the promenade. The distinguished look of his full head of gray hair and neatly trimmed gray beard was not diminished by his wildly-colored floral shirt. “Boy, that was a big place,” he thought as he took another sip, “. . . but come to think of it, this is an airport . . . restrooms are usually big in airports. I wonder which one?” He noticed his loose flowered shirt and the floral lei […]

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The Alzheimer’s Experience, Part II: ‘He Was Such a Strong, Proud Man’

Posted on September 5, 2017 - by Charles Patterson

“Henry hasn’t been that bad,” Mrs Van Winkle reported to Dr Miller. “The only big problem is he wakes up at night and thinks it’s morning. Then he wakes me up to fix breakfast, and I can’t get back to sleep. I can’t understand why he thinks it’s morning when it’s still dark.” “I’ll prescribe a sleeping pill for him and see you both in a week to see how it works.” Next visit she came in alone, in tears. “The sleeping pill worked fine,” she sobbed, “but now he wets the bed.” “That only means the pill’s too strong. […]

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