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

December 7, 2006 Challenges of Being a Bereaved Stepparent – Babe Muro

Posted on December 7, 2006 - by admin

HEALING THE GRIEVING HEART Challenges of Being a Bereaved Stepparent Hosts:? Dr. Gloria Horsley and Dr. Heidi Horsley With guest:? Babe Muro December 7, 2006 G:?Hello.? I?m Dr. Gloria Horsley with my co-host H:?Dr. Heidi Horsley. G:?Each week we welcome you to Healing the Grieving Heart, a show of hope and conversation with those who?ve suffered the loss of a loved one and for health care professionals who work in this difficult field.? As always the message is that others have been there before you and made it and you can, too.? You need not walk alone.? If you?re listening […]

Read More
Open to hope

December 7, 2006 Quotes from Challenges of Being a Bereaved Stepparent – Babe Muro

Posted on December 7, 2006 - by admin

BABE MURO.? Babe Muro’s 19-year-old stepdaughter, Lori Singer, died in an automobile accident on March 30, 1998.? Lori was excited about being in the U.S. Navy and was to leave for Guam in a matter of days.? Lori is survived by her brother Keith who continues to live with Babe and his mother Michelle.? Michele is the co-leader of the Staten Island Chapter of The Compassionate Friends, and Babe is what he likes to call the “Shadow Leader” always willing to help behind the scenes.? Babe has led stepparent support groups at The Compassionate Friends National Conference.? Babe Muro:? So […]

Read More
Open to hope

Grief Quotes: Healing After a Loved One’s Suicide: Bill Ritter

Posted on December 6, 2006 - by admin

AUGUST 10, 2006 ? HEALING AFTER A LOVED ONE?S SUICIDE: BILL RITTER, whose first son, Bill Jr., died from suicide at the age of 27. An attorney, Bill Jr. was diagnosed with ADD, Adult Attention Deficit Disorder, and died at his own hand in 1994, only four months after diagnosis. His father, a now retired Methodist minister, wrote the book Take the Dimness of My Soul Away?Healing After a Loved One?s Suicide, which has received national recognition for its thoughtful and personal look into a very difficult subject.

Read More
Open to hope

Grieving Through The Holidays

Posted on December 5, 2006 - by admin

Holiday Grief- what is it? How does it differ from other grief? What is grief anyway? These are but a few questions you might want to explore as we move ever deeper into the holidays, the season of celebration, gift-giving/receiving, parties and gatherings of various sizes and diversities.

Read More
Open to hope

How to Turn Grief into Joy

Posted on December 4, 2006 - by admin

I was with my daddy when he died. Excuse me, I was with my daddy when his spirit left his body. I drove him to the emergency room because he was having chest pains. He said that they weren?t too bad, and his color was good. He was still walking. In fact, Daddy walked into the cubicle in the ER and hopped up on the gurney. Almost as quickly, he hopped off saying, ?Whew, doggie! Feels like somebody?s got a knife in my back, right between my shoulder blades.? Daddy said it with a great big grin on his face. […]

Read More
Open to hope

Christmas Mourning

Posted on December 3, 2006 - by admin

Deecember is a cruel month. Christmas sales, decorations, advertisements -everyone seems so happy and cheerful – it’s easy to feel alone. It’s precisely at these happy times that the loss of our loved one can be felt the strongest. We remember only too well who is missing. Whether our loss was recent or whether it occurred many years ago, we are constantly surrounded by sights and sounds that trigger memories of holidays past, and wracked with dreams of what might have been. Holidays involve expectations about getting together with

Read More
Open to hope

Grief Quotes: Surviving a Sibling: Scott Mastley

Posted on December 2, 2006 - by admin

Scott Mastley: It didn?t hit me immediately, but after a while, it kind of came to me that I was an only child and that eventually I was going to be older than my older brother and that was a pretty weird situation where I remember the day, actually, when I lived longer than he did and I still look at the pictures and even now, I feel like he looked older than I do now which I?m sure is not the case, but it just feels that way. He?s always going to feel like my older brother. Scott Mastley: […]

Read More
Open to hope

Grief Quotes: Grief and Your Health: Dr. Coralease Ruff

Posted on December 2, 2006 - by Coralease Ruff

Dr. Coralease Ruff: What I always say to people about those feelings of regret, sometimes if you write a letter to them expressing those feelings of regret, at least sometimes that can help, because they do wish they had gone to the scene of the accident or gone to view the remains. Because just the loss itself, the death itself is stressful and then, of course, having those other regrets and feelings of guilt increases the stress. Dr. Coralease Ruff: You?ve got that adrenalin flowing so you?re constantly in motion, your body is secreting all these stress hormones. You can?t […]

Read More
Open to hope

The Grief And Belief Connection

Posted on December 2, 2006 - by

“Grief is healing: To take away our grief is to take away our healing. And learning about life after death helps us heal with greater hope, comfort and peace.” ~ Bob Olson In approximately five years of investigating the possibility of life after death, I have discovered convincing evidence that there really is an afterlife, that we really do continue to exist after death, and that our loved ones continue to watch over us and guide us in the spirit world. But this is just the beginning of my discoveries.

Read More
Open to hope

Dakota Winds: Planting Seeds of Hope

Posted on December 2, 2006 - by admin

Thank you for the opportunity to share my experience with the IPPC (Initiative for Pediatric Palliative Care) retreat led by Deborah Dokken, your guest on Thursday. I am the parent of Dakota, an adorable “old soul” who was diagnosed with cancer at two and died one week before he turned five. That was ten years ago. In those ten years, our family has turned our pain into a passion to help others who also find themselves suffering the loss of a loved one. When Dakota died, my husband wanted to buy our two year old son, Dylan, a gift to […]

Read More

Foundation

Get Involved

Resources

Copyright © 2026 Open to Hope