Open to Hope Articles

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.

Articles Home

Open to hope

Grief Goes to Work: Part II

Posted on June 12, 2009 - by Patrick T. Malone

By Patrick T. Malone — In the last installment, I told you about the deaths of my two sons, Scott and Lance, and my work experiences related to the grief associated with those deaths. We ended with my reaching out for help from others fully expecting the world was coming to an end. Well, as many of you probably know, the world does not end when you reach out for help. As a matter of fact, the relationships and interactions in my work environment improved immensely after my explaining exactly what would help. As I moved further along, I have […]

Read More
Open to hope

Getting Through Multiple Loses

Posted on June 11, 2009 - by admin

by Harriet Hodgson, Search the Internet, browse a bookstore, and you find hundreds of books about grief. You will find personal stories, tributes to the deceased, grief poetry, text books, work books, and memory books. When I looked for a book about coping with multiple losses I could not find what I needed. As it turned out, friends were my “book” and they comforted me in many ways. Though I remember little about 2007, I remember it as the year of death. My daughter and father-in-law died the same weekend. Eight weeks later my brother died. Six months after that […]

Read More
Open to hope

Kim McLean and Paula Prime: Finding Peace and Light After Loss

Posted on June 10, 2009 - by Monica Novak

From Healing the Grieving Heart radio, May 14, 2009 Listen to radio show archive: MP3 Link First  Guest: Kim McLean is a mainstream artist whose music is used often for comfort and hope of the bereaved.  Although that was not her initial intention, people have sought her out because of the healing quality of her songs and vocal presentation filled with inspiring music. Second Guest: Pamela Prime is a mother, grandmother, spiritual director and author of When the Moon is Dark We Can See the Stars.  She has survived the loss of two children, including an infant daughter to SIDS, […]

Read More
Open to hope

Welcome to My New Column and First Posting

Posted on June 10, 2009 - by Monica Novak

Dear Friends, Welcome to the first post of my new weekly column, A Mother’s Thoughts. I’ll be sharing stories from my own experience, stories told to me by others, and any topics I come across that are relevant to pregnancy loss and infant death. I welcome your comments, questions, and your own personal experiences, for it is in sharing that we find healing and meaning in our own lives.  Blessings, Monica Choosing to Live By Monica Novak Three weeks after our daughter Miranda was stillborn, shattering my Marsha-Brady-like-existence, my husband Al and I attended a Share pregnancy and infant loss […]

Read More
Open to hope

Taking Baby Steps on the Grief Journey

Posted on June 10, 2009 - by Beverly Chantalle McManus

We’re right in the middle of baseball season. One of our family’s favorite pastimes was to attend the Giants games at the old Candlestick Park in San Francisco, where we’d shiver in the bleachers as we cheered on our team. I still picture Steve with his Giants’ cap, Giants’ sweatshirt, and baseball mitt in hand (just in case he was in a position to catch a wild ball that was hit into the stands). Our daughters and I were always more interested in the antics of the other fans, in finding that elusive malt vendor, and in just staying warm […]

Read More
Open to hope

How Should You Help a Grieving Widow?

Posted on June 10, 2009 - by Michele Neff Hernandez

By Michele Neff Hernandez — Grief is a thief; it steals the breath of life and leaves devastation in its wake. What happens when grief robs a woman of not only her husband, but also her ability to cope with the world around her? How do friends and family members know when that widow is in a dangerous place?? The answers to these questions can only be discovered if we are willing to plant our own feet next to a widow, and walk a portion of the journey by her side. A young woman lost her husband in a car […]

Read More
Open to hope

What Happened Between Two Children was Extraordinary

Posted on June 9, 2009 - by Fran Dorf

By Fran Dorf The following is the Prologue for Saving Elijah, Fran Dorf’s novel about child-loss. When the woman phoned, I couldn’t place her name until she said she was Maggie’s mother. Then I knew. They’d made quite a pair at the hospital, my son and her daughter. Eight-year-old Maggie was stricken and hairless and exhausted, her ashen face steroid-bloated beyond all reason. Five-year-old Elijah, with his thick glasses and crossed eyes, looked like a weird little Martian, his red-blond curls pasted to his skull with goop, an electrode and wire bonnet attaching him to a rolling EEG machine. He […]

Read More
Open to hope

For the kids…

Posted on June 8, 2009 - by Eric Tomei

Yesterday I attended a charity function for a wonderful charity here in the Metro Detroit area benefitting children who have lost a parent. Yatooma’s Foundation for the kids provides financial assistance, groceries, counseling, coaching to family members, and just about anything else to children in need after a parent has died. Their annual Champions for the Kids event was held at the Townsend Hotel in Birmingham and it was the first time I had ever been to an event like this. It was first class all the way and through live and silent auction items over $171,000 was raised for […]

Read More
Open to hope

TCF Changes Many Lives

Posted on June 8, 2009 - by Sandy Fox

by Sandy Fox I have watched miracles happen when parents who have lost a child are helped. At a national Compassionate Friends Conference one summer, I spend a lot of time in the bookstore selling my book. It was there I met Bobby and his sister when they bought my book. He was very quiet and withdrawn. She explained: “I had to bring Bobby here. I was afraid for him.” In 2001 one of his teenage children was killed in a car accident. In 2002 the second of his teenage children was killed in a car accident. In 2003 the […]

Read More
Open to hope

Others Share Ways To Help Bereaved

Posted on June 8, 2009 - by Sandy Fox

by Sandy Fox On my web site, www.sandyfoxauthor.com I have listed 10 ways that others can help us through our grief. Here are 10 additional ways I collected from friends to develop a new level of understanding between you and your friends that may help parents as they travel down that long, difficult road to recovery. **Acknowledge my grief; don’t ignore me because you are uncomfortable with the subject of death. It makes me wonder if what happened means nothing to you. **Don’t try to understand the depth of my pain. Just put a loving hand on my shoulder or […]

Read More

Foundation

Get Involved

Resources

Copyright © 2026 Open to Hope