Open to Hope Articles

Articles Home

Angel Moms

Posted on September 8, 2009 - by Sandy Fox

by Sandy Fox I found a web site bereaved mothers may be interested in looking at and even joining. The site is www.angelmoms.com . Through their pain, these mothers have bonded together to offer each other love, support and understanding, something we all need. Their email group of moms chats daily, sharing tears and laughter. As I opened the site, the song “You’ll Never Walk Alone” played in the background. I felt very comfortable and comforted looking at this lovely site and reading about what they have done for each other and for others out there, not even members. If […]

How to Politely Decline Offers of Help While Grieving

Posted on September 8, 2009 - by Stephanie Frogge

Laura writes in: My father just died and my mother, a new widow, is getting lots of well-meaning invitations to lunches, dinners, etc. She is the type of person to worry more about other people than herself but the invitations are too much. I am trying to help her find the words to politely decline and guide people to ‘back off’. How do you politely decline social invitations when you’re just not ready to be around people after you become a widow? Dear Laura, What a compassionate daughter you are that in the midst of your own grief you are […]

Poem: God’s Greatest Work of Art

Posted on September 8, 2009 - by Mitch Carmody

God’s Greatest Work of Art If a picture is worth a thousand words And nothing worthwhile is ever lost Then what is the value of memories For those who paid the highest cost? When a parent loses a child Words become a useless tool There is nothing to be said to undo the hurt And feeble attempts are only cruel A hug heart to heart in warm embrace Surpasses any useless phrase Shared tears and shared memories More healing than funeral sprays A photograph is a moment in time And sometimes it can capture our soul A place we can […]

How the Cemetery Helped After the Death of My Son

Posted on September 8, 2009 - by Anne Dionne

For me, the cemetery is a quiet and peaceful place. A quick walk or turn of the car wheels through the gate is like entering a different world. I leave the noise and cares behind as I enter the place where time loses meaning, and rest is eternal. When I was an adolescent, I enjoyed an occasional walk with a close friend through the cemetery near my childhood home. The cemetery was a mystical place. As we strolled along its narrow roads, we read with curiosity the names and dates on the grave markers. We pondered what the life of […]

When You Don’t Get to Say ‘Goodbye’ at the Very End

Posted on September 7, 2009 - by Tony Falzano

Towards the end of her life, my mom had a number of health issues. These included high blood pressure, diabetes, heart failure and eventually, kidney failure where she needed dialysis. In the fall of 1999, her right leg began to turn black and blue. It was diagnosed that her heart was not strong enough to pump the blood to the lower extremity. To correct this, mom had surgery on her artery to increase the blood flow. She came through the operation fine. She was alert that afternoon and was able to converse. The next day, the hospital staff tried to […]

Song Commissioned in Memory of Daughter

Posted on September 7, 2009 - by Harriet Hodgson

After my daughter died in February of 2007, my husband and I looked for ways to remember her. We did the usual things — had a memorial service, told stories, and gave money to the church. But we wanted to do more. How could we keep our daughter’s spirit alive? The choir was designated as the recipient of our church donation. I had been a choir member for more than 20 years and thought the money would be used for sheet music. The co-director of music had a better idea — a commissioned song in her memory. I loved this […]

A Meditation for Those Facing the First Anniversary of a Loss

Posted on September 6, 2009 - by Michele Neff Hernandez

As you approach the first anniversary of losing the amazing person that shared your life, I have a vision I would like to share with you. I am imagining you wearing a heavily laden backpack. This pack is filled with the searing pain of separation, the desperate fear of the unknown, the intense longing for the touch of someone who loves you, the emerging hope you have for the future, and a new love for today. You are surrounded by the beauty of the Arizona countryside, heading up the North side of the Grand Canyon. The landscape is breath-taking, sometimes […]

Hard Time for Moms Near the End of the Journey

Posted on September 6, 2009 - by Lisa Buell

It had been a warm summer, the breeze filled with the scent of sweet jasmine. The bright magenta of the Bougainvillea bloomed with fierceness, its roots running deep, tapping into the water below. It bloomed despite the lack of watering and it stood as a physical sign of our family’s battle with cancer: we continued to bloom. It was early spring and Madison had just finished her last chemotherapy. We were at the hospital getting what was supposed to be a series of scans over several years. This was our first; if all went well, we would be able to […]

Finding Hope After a Loss

Posted on September 5, 2009 - by admin

by Mary Jane Hurley Brant Have you lost someone so special you feel you can never be happy again? I ask this question because sooner or later we will all be hit with a loss we think we cannot bear. No one escapes it. Consider the recent death of Senator Ted Kennedy. During his life he looked grief and personal tragedy in the eye many times. The Senator, as other giants before him, will be missed. His family, as all families, will have to wrap themselves around their monumental loss, cling together, and go forward. They and we know that no one can ever take […]

When a Friend Dies

Posted on September 5, 2009 - by Harriet Hodgson

By Harriett Hodgson — My father-in-law made many close friends during his 98 years of life. So many of those friends died that my father-in-law became known as the “last man standing.” At first, Dad would get really upset when a close friend died. After losing dozens of friends his response changed. “He (or she) was a wonderful person,” he would say, and then he would change the subject. Life taught Dad how to cope with death. Karen Callinan writes about coping with a friend’s death in “Facing the Death of Friends,” published on the American Catholic website. Coping with death […]