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When Does Healing Begin? Watching For the Signs

Posted on June 22, 2009 - by Harriet Hodgson

By Harriet Hodgson — When you are in the throes of grief, you think you will never be happy again. Your world is a narrow, dark tunnel. You do not see any light, yet glimmers exist, and they are signs of healing. Watch for these signs, for they give you the courage to move forward with life. Healing begins when you feel a real smile. I did not smile after four loved ones died in the span of nine months. In fact, I forgot what a smile felt like. Then one day, I smiled a tentative smile, and it felt […]

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Telling a Child About Two Deaths in One Day

Posted on June 22, 2009 - by Pamela Gabbay

By Pamela Gabbay, M.A., FT — My mind was simultaneously racing around in circles and dull as a knife. She’s only four… four. I could not fathom how I was going to tell my four-year-old daughter that her beloved grandmother, my mom, had just died. Her grandmother, who called her “my little Meg,” and lovingly sang “Somewhere Over the Rainbow to her;” her grandmother who swam with her and played hide and seek for hours. Four-year-olds don’t understand death. I don’t understand death. My mom was just 51. She had only been diagnosed with cancer two weeks ago and now […]

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Return to Ensenada: A Father’s Journey Two Decades Later

Posted on June 21, 2009 - by Mitch Carmody

On December 1, 1987, life as I knew it ceased to exist. I watched helplessly as my 9-year-old son’s tired and cancer ravaged body slowly released his spirit.  I saw his partially paralyzed face find its proper form and like the graceful arch of a feather, his smile returned once more. His half slit eyes, almost crusted closed, now yawned wide open; dark slate turned to brilliant blue, like forget-me-nots floating in a pool of cream. In the split seconds of my gasp, the soft glow went out and blue faded again back to gray, and although I knew I […]

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Father’s Day and Mother’s Day: A Painful Struggle for Bereaved Parents

Posted on June 20, 2009 - by Cathi Lammert

By Cathi Lammert — Often times, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day are two of the most difficult days for bereaved parents. Some have told me that these days are so painful that they are not able to even acknowledge them for their own mom or dad, and they celebrate with their parents on a different day. Over the years, parents have looked at me with tear-filled eyes and asked me, “Am I really a parent if my baby is not here with me?” The answer, of course, is yes. I equate parenthood with love, the greatest kind of love. Does […]

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Of Fathers and Faith

Posted on June 19, 2009 - by admin

Father’s Day is just ahead, and for more than 150 million Americans whose fathers have died, it will be a day of missing Dad. Father’s Day can be a traumatic day for those of us whose fathers who have died and the anticipation of the day is often as difficult – or even more difficult – than the holiday itself. Whether it’s been recent or many years since Dad passed away, we have to somehow get through the day as well as remember and honor Dad’s life. When John Pete ask me to write a blog on how my faith […]

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A Stillborn Baby and the Fathers in Her Life

Posted on June 19, 2009 - by Monica Novak

By Monica Novak – When I was a child, I prided myself on making the best homemade cards to show my parents how important they were to me. Father’s Day was probably the Big Kahuna of card-making for me because in the eyes of this little girl, Daddy was king. He was the one whose side I sat by for all those workbench projects, eagerly waiting to hand over a tool. And he was the one whose shoulder I cried on during the disappointments and heartbreaks of life.  Somehow, Dad was always able to make it feel better and bring […]

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Purchasing Funeral Flowers

Posted on June 19, 2009 - by admin

by Barbara K. Jackson A funeral is a very, very sad time for most families and as such care should be taken in purchasing any funeral flowers. This article explains how you should approach purchasing your flowers to get the very best from them and to suit this very sensitive occasion. Funeral flowers are the perfect way to share your grief with the bereaved. It can be a mine field when you first look into sending flowers for a funeral. There are many different types of funeral arrangements, and you must bear in mind that different cultures sometimes may view […]

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A Wife Marvels at a Father’s Grief for His Daughter

Posted on June 19, 2009 - by Harriet Hodgson

By Harriet Hodgson — The death of a child is a lifetime loss and parents never recover from it.  Instead, they learn to live with it.  A popular belief is that men don’t cry; they hold their feelings inside.  But my husband is not like that.  Our daughter’s sudden death at age 45 from the injuries she received in a car crash affected him the same way it affected me.  The shock stunned us. I have seen him cry. We cried together and took turns with our crying days.  When I was overcome with sorrow, he comforted me.? When he […]

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Mother Learns How to Comfort Bereaved Son

Posted on June 18, 2009 - by Nina Bennett

By Nina Bennett — I was used to fixing the problems Timothy, my youngest son, encountered when he was a child. If his older brother knocked down his castle of blocks, I helped him rebuild it. When he fell down learning to walk, I could pick him up. When he tumbled off his bike, I would bandage his scraped knee and send him on his way again. As he made his way through the teenage years, I was there to listen, offer advice if asked, and advocate for him when it was needed. I was faced with many difficult situations […]

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Open to Hope Editor’s TV Special Airs June 20

Posted on June 18, 2009 - by Neil Chethik

Dear Open to Hope Friends: I wanted to let you know that my first book, FATHERLOSS, has been turned into a PBS special! The half-hour program will premiere this Saturday, June 20, at 8 p.m. in Kentucky only. It will then be marketed to PBS stations around the country to air before Father’s Day 2010. The PBS producer, Dave Shuffett, does an outstanding job capturing the emotions that sons experience following the death of a father. In the show, he tells his own powerful father-loss story. Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Joel Pett also shares his story of father-loss in the […]

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