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Mother’s Day as a Bereaved Mom

Posted on May 2, 2011 - by admin

For a while I wondered if winter would ever leave, though the calendar said it had. However, the gorgeous weather of this past week is proof that spring has unmistakably arrived. The sights and sounds outside my window do not lie. The neighborhood children have shed their winter coats and I hear their gleeful laughter as they play in the cul-de-sac. The robin sings a chorus from a branch on Nina’s flowering tree that is beginning to bloom as it has every May for the past seven years. Soon the air will be filled with an overwhelming fragrance so intoxicating […]

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Writing Songs for Husband Helped Widow Heal

Posted on May 2, 2011 - by Paula Ezop

When my husband died, I felt a burning desire, a heartfelt need, to tell the world about the love that we shared.  I wanted everyone to know how I felt, and how our love would last forever and ever. I decided that I was going to write a song about the love that I held deep in my heart.  My love song would be a memorial to the man that I walked through life and death with. I’m not a musician nor am I a songwriter.  But, I was a writer who needed to express herself.  So, I researched the […]

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Remembering Buddy

Posted on May 2, 2011 - by admin

Five years ago, I lost my 2 1/2 year old son Daniel Jr., in a drowning accident. Five years later, though the pain is not as intense, I still feel the emptiness from his absence. He never got to grow up and everytime my older daughter gets to a milestone, I know, it will be the last time we get to celebrate the event. However, my good memories of him are clearer now and sometimes images of something he did will come forward bringing a smile. Though he was only here for a short time, his little footprints have forever […]

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Sudden Death vs. Anticipated Loss: Two Different Journeys

Posted on May 1, 2011 - by Chris Mulligan

Experience: The stern lights of a ship, which illumine only the track it has passed. — Samuel Taylor Coleridge Having experienced grief previously, I assumed I would be able to move on through life after the death of my mother in November 2010. I thought myself well prepared since I had spent the last ten years creating my new life after my son passed from injuries he sustained in an automobile accident. While caring for my mother, I convinced myself that becoming knowledgeable about Alzheimer’s disease, its progress, symptoms and behaviors would arm me with the necessities to flow through […]

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Connecting to Nature: Sacred Lessons Learned

Posted on April 30, 2011 - by Jane Simington

“Mom, can you come today? I want to show you the little river Wes and I found yesterday. It’s full of minnows. It’s in that marshy place where they cut down those old trees.” There were indeed minnows in his new-found stream. I returned, on numerous occasions, to ponder their existence; I returned to recall the precious moments we had shared; I returned to caress his foot’s imprint in the muddy-bog; I returned, praying that nature would preserve it – never taking it from me. One of the most difficult things to come to terms with was my need to […]

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Woman Embraces Role as Caregiver to Those with Cancer

Posted on April 29, 2011 - by Sharon Roth-Lichtenfeld

I have been surrounded by cancer all of my life. One of my earliest memories was in 1967.  I was just 6 1/2 years old. My Aunt Natalie had died from breast cancer at the young age of 43. To this day, I can still recall that rainy July day. I remember being confused, scared, and fearful when my mom told me the news. In those days, the “C’ word was never spoken out loud. It was discussed only by the adults and always behind closed doors.  Neither of my parents ever explained how or why my aunt had died.  […]

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Widow Struggles to Open Her Heart Again

Posted on April 28, 2011 - by Christine Thiele

The sixth anniversary of my husband’s death is right around the corner. I’m wondering tonight about open hearts. Open hearts are soft, ready to be shaped by love. They are ready for moments of joy, ready to let go of pain.  I have an open heart.  My only problem is that my heart is only open from time to time – it is no longer open regularly. There have been moments throughout the six years that have passed when I have felt ready.  I feel ready to open my heart and ponder the possibility of someone else to love.  Fleeting […]

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my Sonshine taked away….

Posted on April 27, 2011 - by admin

On Jan,16,2007 my Mom passed away from lung cancer(6 mths after diagnoses), Than tragically my 22 yr old Son passed away on Sept.07.2009, than 2 mnths later my 43 cousin passed(suicide), than just this past November 26,2010 my only brother passed away(apparent suicide,suspicious death).I am more than beside myself…the only thing that is keeping me alive is My 19 yr old Son, he is the sun shine of my Life and one would think that would be enough to move forward. I feel guilty about the way I have been coping and would think that I would smarten up and […]

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Dissonance in the Land of the Hereafter — Part II

Posted on April 27, 2011 - by K. Paul Stoller

I remember exactly when my son, Galen, was conceived – October 14th, 1990. I know where I was, what I had been doing that day and I remember how one week later I received a dream about a young man preparing himself to be born. Was this Galen? I have actually never asked him, but on some level unknown to my conscious mind, I had a connection with this man. He was down on one knee stacking books he wanted to go over before he returned to earth. If you have been reading my articles here on the Open to […]

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Underwater at the Cancer Diagnosis

Posted on April 26, 2011 - by Karen Johnson

I could see his lips moving and his eyes penetrating but I felt like I was swimming underwater.  The muffled sounds seemed far away and the x-ray the doctor was pointing to had black spots on the tailbone, elbow, neck and rib.  I drew myself above water and spoke, “Couldn’t they be arthritis?” and immediately delved backwards to the soundproof zone of denial. I needed gulps of fresh air, but my husband and the doctor seemed to be pantomiming a conversation with one another and the pointer in the physician’s hand kept tracking from one spot to another. Soon to […]

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