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Articles:

In Pieta, Michelangelo Captured Pain of the Bereaved

By Rev. Charles T. Rubey — The Pieta is on display in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. It is one of the more famous pieces of sculpture created by Michelangelo. It depicts Mary holding the crucified body of Jesus. This mother’s heart is broken as she views her child’s broken body. I thought of this piece of art and how appropriate it is as we celebrated Mother’s Day in May. This piece of art symbolizes mothers who are grieving the death of a child, or children grieving the death of a mother or a mother figure. The hearts of people […]

Friends Help In Multiple Losses

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 […]

Grief in the Workplace

by Patrick Malone The Situation $37,500,000,000: Businesses are accustomed to putting a price tag on lost productivity and increased insurance costs associated with conditions from diabetes to those from life problems including substance abuse and depression. For the first time there is data available on the impact of grief in the workplace and the annual cost of grief from the death of a loved one is more than $37.5 billion. The grief following the death of a child is intense, long-lasting and complex. It is perhaps the most devastating loss a parent may experience and poses unique challenges for you, […]

Missed Opportunities

by Lana When we lose a loved one, sometimes when we reflect on the past, we find missed opportunities. The spring before Alicia died, she was invited to a 2 week seminar at Princeton. I never told her how proud I was of her accomplishments! She was working on her PhD in mathematics and she had earned the highest score on her Preliminary exams and was one of the most promising students they had at the University of Colorado at Boulder. So, she was invited to attend this two week seminar. When you lose a loved one, you think of […]

The Yellow Butterfly

by Corinne Ruiz April 22, 2004, my life was forever changed. My 14 year old daughter, Olivia Corinne Hoff passed away. As I look back now, I don’t even know how I survived. I didn’t think it was possible to live another day, another week, another month and another year, but I have. My grief journey continues to this day, such hard work, every day. For those parents who have lost a child, you all know too well how difficult this journey is. Along the way, I felt as though I were stuck, unable to move forward and, of course, […]

How Do We Cope When We Lose A Loved One?

(by Evelyn Hall) A friend has lost a family member, maybe a child, husband or mother. What does one say or do? Some of us don’t know what to say, so we remain silent. Others don’t know what to do, so they remain still. I was asked to write an article about losing a loved one. I feel I have the experience to write this because I lost my best friend, my mother, three years ago. She was eighty-six and her age helped me cope with her death better than I thought I would, but it didn’t stop me from […]

Grandmother Reinvests in Life

By Nina Bennett When I was young, New Year’s Eve was always magical. It was the only night my brother, sister and I were permitted to stay up late. We would watch the ball drop in Times Square on television. We made New Year’s resolutions, even though we had no idea what a resolution was. As I moved through my teenage years, New Year’s Eve presented a dilemma. I wanted to go to parties with my friends and the special someone in my life, but families I baby-sat for throughout the year were willing to pay what at that time […]

Death Creates Secondary Losses

by Harriet Hodgson Death creates many secondary losses. Some are major, some are minor, and some are just annoying. After four family members died within nine months I coped with dozens of secondary losses. I was in such shock at the time, however, I did not realize how powerful these losses could be. According to Bob Deits, author of “Life After Loss,” secondary losses are really a series of losses. These losses hit and hurt the core of your being, Deits says, and “how you measure your happiness and value your life.” Well, I can honestly say I didn’t have […]

Grief, Loss and a Proven Plan for Peace of Mind

by Lou LaGrand, grief counselor and author Are you in a state of confusion? Have you made the decision that you will get through this loss? Are you confronting your loss and fears? If not, why not? Peace of mind is the ultimate goal of good grief so that one can begin the work of reinvesting in a life in the absence of the physical presence of the deceased. Peace of mind is also an inner strength that has both emotional and biological value of immense proportions. From it flows unexpected joy and a new energy base. But how can […]

Playing Hurt

by Carolina Fernandez When we got the call at 2 AM last Saturday, I hopped out of bed with the thought that anyone faced with a ring in the middle of the night would have: “Who in the world would be calling us at this hour?” I looked at caller ID and, not recognizing the number and seeing that it was not Nick, our son away at college some thirteen hours from home I yawned and crawled back into bed, pulling the down covers way up over my head. Forgetting all about that middle-of-the-night-call, I moved through Sunday morning as always: […]

Open to Hope is an online community offering inspirational stories of loss, hope and recovery. We believe hope is the bridge between loss and recovery.