Open to Hope Articles

Articles Home

What can Kids Hold Onto After a Parent has Died?

Posted on November 10, 2008 - by admin

By Harriet Hodgson It has been just over a month since my daughter was killed in a car crash. Every day has been a day of tears, some voiced, […]

Prescription Drug Addiction Leads to Brother’s Death

Posted on November 9, 2008 - by Neil Chethik

By Rod Colvin – I wrapped my birthday gift and left it on the kitchen table. As I headed to work, I pondered where to take my brother Randy for […]

Planning Helps With the ‘Firsts’

Posted on November 8, 2008 - by Susan Gilbert & Suzanne Redfern

By Sue Gilbert and Suzanne Redfern – The following is an excerpt from The Grieving Garden, authored by Suzanne Redfern and Susan Gilbert (Hampton Roads Publishing, 2008). In this excerpt, […]

Alcoholic Families Create Legacy of Loss

Posted on November 7, 2008 - by Penelope Wesley

By Penelope Wesley — We usually don’t think of alcoholism as a loss, but it creates ripples of loss in every direction. My experience with alcohol and abuse consists of being […]

Obama Right to Interrupt Campaign

Posted on November 6, 2008 - by Neil Chethik

President-elect Barack Obama’s decision to leave the campaign trail to visit his dying grandmother may have been difficult in the short run: it came less than two weeks before election […]

Finding Your Way to a “New Normal”

Posted on November 5, 2008 - by Clara Hinton

By Clara Hinton — Grief is such a difficult journey, but it becomes especially difficult around the holiday season. Everywhere you look, there are reminders of family times, laughter and […]

Memory as Medicine: How One Heals After a Trauma

Posted on November 3, 2008 - by Norman Fried

By Norman Fried — A research study from a group of Chinese scientists reports a new drug that successfully erases memories from the minds of mice. The study reveals a […]

Rebalancing After Loss

Posted on November 2, 2008 - by John Pete

I believe in some ways grief must be like losing a limb. In the aftermath, you have lost something you can never get back, and each new day thereafter, brings […]

Struggling to Survive Brother’s Suicide

Posted on October 31, 2008 - by Michelle L. Rusk

Janet writes in: I, along with my sister and now deceased brother, have always suffered from mental illness — hereditary-based and environmental. We grew-up in an immensely dysfunctional home, with […]

Surviving Sister Nurses Her Wounds

Posted on October 31, 2008 - by Neil Chethik

By Ruby Rose Fox – I remember the first time I discovered an ACE bandage. I stole it from the medicine cabinet and quickly hid it in my room. I […]