The Open to Hope Community

The Open to Hope Community Leader is here to answer questions, provide support, and maintain a healthy, positive environment at opentohope.com. This is the next line.

Articles:

How to Remember Those Who Have Passed Away

1) Share your memories with friends and family and get them to share theirs too. You may learn things that you didn’t know about your loved one. 2) Leave memorial flowers at your church, or another special spot such as the beach. 3) Create a memory box containing special items that belonged to you and your loved one. Place little notes in it with special memories on.

When The Cell Phone Stops Ringing

My wife, Bobbie, and I, were not big fans of the cell phone in the beginning, but we did communicate at least twice a day or night. I was a swing shift worker. She was a day shifter. Earlier in our marriage, we used beepers or pagers. They could get irritating without a voice to deal with, but the price was much cheaper. Then there was the problem of finding a phone to answer the beep. But, all that’s said and done, any communication was helpful, and we were thankful for that.

For Widows Only –What We Want/What We Don’t Want

We want our husbands back. We don’t want your husband, your son, your father, your grandfather, or your cousin’s next door neighbor’s husband, her son, her father, or her grandfather. If we ask the simple question, “how is he doing” That’s all we mean. We may not want to be alone, but we never want to wreck a home.

Poetry Healing: The Healing Properties Of Poetry

Grief is one of the hardest things to face in life, and unfortunately it is something which most of us will experience in our time. Writing or reading grief poems and funeral poems is something which many find beneficial in helping them to complete their journey through the bereavement process.

For Widows Only — Who We Are

We are women left. We experienced the best of times; The worst of times. And survived. We discovered the meaning of life — Nothing like the loss of a spouse to wake us up to that.

January 4, 2007: I Have No Intention of Saying Good-Bye: Coping Techniques for Now Childless – Sandy Fox

JANUARY 4, 2007 – I HAVE NO INTENTION OF SAYING GOOD-BYE: COPING TECHNIQUES FOR THE NOW CHILDLESS: SANDY FOX, the bereaved mother of Marcy, her only child who was killed in a car accident 12 years ago.? Her book, I Have No Intention of Saying Good-bye, tells the story of 25 sets of parents and how they moved on with their lives after their loss.? Sandy, a high school teacher for 28 years, has been a journalist and freelance writer her whole life and now enjoys speaking to bereavement groups around the country, trying to help others through their grief […]

Now Childless Conference to be Held April 20-22

The second Now Childless Conference is in the planning stages for April 20-22, 2007, at The Inn at Pima in Scottsdale, AZ. To encourage those of you still needing to make a decision as to whether you will attend the Conference, I want to give you some additional information that may help in that decision-making.

Dear “a grieving mother”:

Thank you for your e-mail and for joining us on our blog. We were very sorry to hear of the loss of you first child. We know how devastating it is to have our children die as we have such hopes, dreams and plans for them. Many women tell us of their concerns regarding their husbands responses to loss. It sounds like you have really made sure that he has had medical evaluation. Since we do not know him and have not seen him we have suggestions that we believe could impact you as a couple. We would first suggest […]

Request for Help: Do Men Grieve Differently?

Dear Ms. Ruff, I am looking for help for my husband. Nearly 3 years ago, our first child died at 39.5 weeks of my pregnancy. The cause of her death is unknown. She looked so perfect…so beautiful. Of course, I do not have to explain to you the torment and torture that the death of a child brings to the very existence of the parent’s lives. A very important thing to mention is that 13 months after our first baby daughter died, we were blessed with a second baby daugther healthy and alive…she’s now almost 2 years old. I know […]

Testimony of a Suicide Survivor

I am a suicide survivor. I am also a Christian. This article explains how anyone, but especially people of faith, can survive or help others to survive the tragedy of a suicidal death of a family member or close friend. My father committed suicide with an overdose of prescription medicine taken in conjunction with alcohol. Alcohol is a depressant that exacerbates suicidal tendencies in those who are prone to such self-destructive acts. I was 16 years old at the time. I was wrongly ashamed of my father?s suicide for most of my life. In fact, that feeling of shame is […]

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.