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Ila Roy: Culture and Grief

Posted on September 9, 2018 - by Heidi Horsley

Ila Roy of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) spoke with Open to Hope’s Executive Director Dr. Heidi Horsley during the 2015 Association for Death Education and Counseling conferences about the relationship between culture and grief. As a member of the social work team in the clinical centers of the NIH, Roy is placed in the ICU of the hematology/oncology non-transplant branch of the hospital. “I deal, unfortunately, with loss a lot,” she says. When asked about her experience being born and raised in India, and how that may differ from the grief process in the US, Roy says that […]

Continuing Bonds After The Loss Of A Parent: Interview with Brittany Trauthwein

Posted on September 8, 2018 - by Heidi Horsley

At the annual ADEC (Association of Death Education and Counseling), I spoke with Brittany Trauthwein about continuing bonds after loss. Brittany is a doctorate student at the Chicago Professional School of Psychology who is writing a dissertation about continuing bonds after the death of a parent. In the video below, Brittany discusses how she got into this topic and why it was so important for her to write about it as her dissertation. Here are some key takeaways from the video: During the first year of her schooling, Brittany lost her father. That was when people started telling her stories […]

Art of Grieving, After Loss of Child: Interview With Dr. Delores Gulledge

Posted on September 7, 2018 - by Heidi Horsley

At the annual ADEC (Association of Death Education and Counseling), I spoke with Dr. Delores Gulledge about life after the death of her 17 year old daughter Melanie. She shares how she went forward with her life and found a way to help others. Delores is also the author of a book called “A Mourning Miracle”, which she wrote while in the process of putting her life back together after the death of her daughter. Her book was written to help others who are going through the same experience. In the video below, Delores share her advice on how to […]

Giving Back After Coping with a Loss: Interview with Dr.Janna Henning

Posted on September 6, 2018 - by Heidi Horsley

At the annual ADEC (Association of Death Education and Counseling), I spoke with Dr. Janna Henning about her losses and how she went on to help other people the way she helped herself. Getting into the field of death and dying was influenced by Janna’s own loss experience. At the age of 21, Janna was in a car accident where her best friend died. Six months later, Janna’s partner was killed in a similar accident. For Janna, having those two loss experiences in her 20’s influenced her way of understanding loss. When Janna later entered the field of psychology it […]

Multiple Sibling Loss: Interview with Shavaun McGinty

Posted on September 3, 2018 - by Heidi Horsley

At the annual ADEC (Association of Death Education and Counseling), I spoke with Shavaun McGinty, an expert on sibling loss. In the video below I talk to Shavaun about the loss of her three siblings, the effect it has had on her life, and how she went on to find hope after loss. Here are some key takeaways from the video: Shavaun was 25 when she lost her sister, who was 23. Shavaun was 42 when she experienced her most recent sibling loss 4 years ago. Siblings can find hope again by passing on the legacy through talking about your […]

To The Widow Struggling With Guilt

Posted on September 3, 2018 - by Kerry Phillips

On the outside, the world sees you hurting from the loss of your spouse. They don’t know; however, that in addition to the “normal” feelings of grief, you’re also struggling with guilt. You blame yourself for not insisting that he see the doctor when his cough got progressively worse. You beat yourself up for not seeing beyond his reassurances that he was “okay”. Perhaps you had a fight before he stormed out of the house and you wished you’d chased after him. Or, if you’re like me, you carry the burden of not getting on an earlier flight. Regardless of the circumstances, […]

Dear Dad: Letters to a Man I Never Knew

Posted on August 26, 2018 - by Gary Jaworski

Introduction Dear Dad is the story of my life told in the form of letters to my father, Walter Michael Jaworski, who died of a heart attack when I was five and whom, therefore, I never got to know. It is not a maudlin story of regret, but the tale of how one’s entire life — conscious and unconscious — can be shaped by the defining moment of a parent’s death, and how my own fatherhood lifted me from a lifetime of pain. Letters 2-4 Dear Dad, I don’t know who you are, and so, I don’t know who I am. They tell […]

Dear Dad: A Letter to the Long Deceased

Posted on August 24, 2018 - by Gary Jaworski

Introduction Dear Dad is the story of my life told in the form of letters to my father, Walter Michael Jaworski, who died of a heart attack when I was five and whom, therefore, I never got to know. It is not a maudlin story of regret, but the tale of how one’s entire life — conscious and unconscious — can be shaped by the defining moment of a parent’s death, and how my own fatherhood lifted me from a lifetime of pain. The idea of a letter to my father was suggested by a kindly psychotherapist who, during my mental breakdown […]

You Know You’re Recovering from Grief When . . .

Posted on August 21, 2018 - by Harriet Hodgson

Grief is a dark place, so dark you wonder if you will ever see light again. While you’re grieving, you are struggling to find your way through a long tunnel of darkness and there is no light ahead. You wonder if you will survive. Maybe you won’t find your way out of the tunnel, a terrible thought, and one that adds to your sorrow. Courageous as you have been in the past, you wonder if you have the courage to face this new challenge. It a life without a loved one worth living? Although you’re trying as hard as you can, you […]

You Can’t Unfriend the Dead

Posted on August 14, 2018 - by Greg Adams

Not too long ago, I attended a presentation on grieving in a social-media world. Like so many things with social media, there is good news and bad news. The good news is that social media provides new and creative ways for grieving people to connect and to memorialize. These connections can reduce feelings of isolation and provide affirmation and helpful information in powerful ways. The bad news is that, especially for young people, news of a death can travel so fast—sometimes faster than good, accurate information—and this also lends to learning about a death without a real person present […]