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Preparing To Say Goodbye and Other Challenges of the Heart

Posted on March 17, 2009 - by John Pete

I found out this week that my father’s several years-long battle with cancer has moved to a terminal stage. And while the news is not completely unexpected, it is a frightening jolt to be faced with his mortality in terms of months, all the same. My father has quietly admitted that he is afraid and not yet ready to die; heartbreaking words from someone whose emotions are usually very reserved. My dad would likely be surprised to know that I have always seen him as one of the strongest men I have ever known, despite the fact that there have been many differences between us. He has not […]

Hello March, Goodbye Fear

Posted on March 17, 2009 - by Mary Jane Hurley Brant

By Mary Jane Hurley Brant, M.S., CGP — Fear is big these days and, like wildfire, it spreads easily and quickly. Fear is a primal emotion; it triggers our reptilian (more primitive) brain to fight or flee. When the reptilian brain is engaged, it overrides rationality. Therefore, whatever our fear is about – our safety, our economy, our relationships, our health, or our future – fear can paralyze us without warning. Undoubtedly, sometimes our fear is a response to real and immediate danger. More frequently, however, fear’s stronghold is about our unexamined thinking as, “Oh Lord, it will always be […]

Fatherloss To Be Made Into PBS Special

Posted on March 17, 2009 - by Neil Chethik

FatherLoss, a book by Open to Hope Executive Editor Neil Chethik, is being made into a PBS Special for national distribution this Father’s Day. Neil will be the featured expert in the documentary about how men deal with the deaths of their dads. Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist Joel Pett will also be featured, telling the story of his father’s life and death. The Special is being produced by Kentucky Educational Television (KET), the public TV network in Kentucky. It will be made available to all PBS stations around the country. FatherLoss, which was published by Hyperion Books in 2001, has […]

Unique Aspects of Losing an Only Child

Posted on March 16, 2009 - by Sandy Fox

by Sandy Fox When a parent loses an only child or all their children, we learn there are unique aspects that confront us. I will be listing for you in this blog and the next, some of these aspects of being childless. I begin with what I believe to be three most important questions: “Am I still a mother?” “Do I need to make a new will” and “Will I ever have any more special events in my life.” First, “Am I still a mother?” Of course we are. We will always be a mother, whether our child is alive […]

Helping a Child Cope With the Death of a Grandparent

Posted on March 16, 2009 - by Claire Perkins

The death of a grandparent can be especially difficult for a young child. But there are ways that you can help the child cope. For example, you can ask the child to draw some pictures of her and her grandfather together and then tell you about the pictures. Or you can suggest that the child draw a picture of the grandparent in heaven. If the picture comes out scary, ask the child to draw another one in which the grandparent is having fun, doing what he or she always loved to do. The reality is that young children often find […]

Wearing Husband’s Clothes Keeps His Memory Close

Posted on March 15, 2009 - by Michele Neff Hernandez

By Michele Neff Hernandez For the first few weeks after Phil’s death, anything that had touched his body was sacred. His shoes were sitting where he last left them, his lunchbox remained on top of the refrigerator, and his toothbrush was standing next to mine in the holder. One day, I found an eyelash of his and pressed it into a plastic rosary holder for safekeeping. Three days before he died, he was working in our attic and left dirty fingerprints on the top of the door in our bedroom. I was annoyed when I saw the black marks on […]

Washing Diane’s Body: Caring at the Crossing

Posted on March 14, 2009 - by Nancy Manahan & Becky Bohan

By Nancy Manahan, Ph.D., and Becky Bohan. M.A. — In our last Open to Hope posting, the extraordinary final moments of Diane’s death in Nancy’s arms were described. Here, Nancy recounts what happened immediately after Diane died, most importantly, the washing of Diane’s body. This ancient ritual is being reclaimed by many families as an opportunity to honor their loved ones, to grieve, and to perform a final sacred service for them. Diane’s closest friends, Bev and Laura, arrived at the house moments after she died. I was still holding her when they entered the bedroom. They knelt beside the […]

Noticing and Grieving Go Together

Posted on March 14, 2009 - by admin

by Chris Mulligan Learning to “notice” during my first year of grief was more important than anything else in helping me survive my grief. It also provided me a major life lesson. I realized that noticing was the vehicle through which I have come to accept my life experiences as well as be able to move through them and learn from them. All the major events in my life — those that caused the most pain and eventually precipitated the most growth — have also caused me to reflect upon and recognize that the suffering was present for a reason. I always […]

Grief and the Global Economic Challenge

Posted on March 13, 2009 - by Patrick T. Malone

By Patrick Malone — Technically, grief is the intense emotional suffering caused by a loss. If you are among those who have suffered the death of a child, spouse, parent or grandparent, you know an intense level of grief that is almost indescribable. There are many among us today who are dealing with grief due to a different kind of loss — the loss of a job, income or savings — and for them it may be the most intense loss they have experienced. Over the last three decades, we have experienced unprecedented economic growth not only in the United […]

Film Review: Rumors of Angels

Posted on March 12, 2009 - by Mitch Carmody

Reviewed by Mitch Carmody — If I were to recommend a movie to someone who is processing their loss, I would suggest “Rumors of Angels” with Vanessa Redgrave. This movie is based on the book, “Thy Son Liveth: Message From a Soldier to His Mother,” by Grace Duffie Boylan. The story revolves around a young boy who two years prior had lost his mother in a car accident. He was with her in the car and she died in his arms at the scene. His father quickly remarried and they live in a small fishing village in New England. The […]