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 3,000 articles written by our Open to Hope authors.
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Breaking the Rules of Grief
June 30, 2014
An excerpt from the Introduction of Breaking the Rules of Grief, A Bereaved Mother’s Journey. By Shannon Harris I should begin by warning you that there will be no substantial evidence supporting the ideas in this book. These are all my conflicted thoughts in black and white, perfectly spaced in Times New Roman size 12. Should my ideas mean something more than that to someone, great. If not, that’s okay too. After reading countless books and articles on grief and bereavement for parents who have lost a child, I think I’ve had enough information. Not that I am an expert by […]
God’s Plan in the Grocery Store
June 24, 2014
With my whole heart I can say that I am not afraid of anything in life now that I’ve watched my son die. Nothing can ever be harder than that moment in time; therefore, I have nothing to fear. Death itself no longer scares me, either, knowing he is waiting for me on the other side. There are, however, a few land mines that I run into every once in a while that catch me off guard. Explosions of anger, frustration or sadness that turn me inside out and make me come unglued. You know what I’m talking about. You’re […]
Jill Kraft Thompson Rebuilding A Life After Losing Five People
June 19, 2014
Jill Kraft Thompson had a life filled with love: an adoring husband, two young precious sons, a devoted mother, and a close extended family. Jill’s story begins as everyone’s worst nightmare. In 2002 she lost five close family members in a car crash that she survived. Her beloved young sons, husband, mother and niece were gone. https://media.blubrry.com/open_to_hope_1/audio.opentohope.com/Jill-Kraft-Thompson.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Depression in the Workplace Can Be Fatal
June 16, 2014
with workplace commentary by Sandra Turner, Ph.D In the early morning hours on March 29, 1999, our son Keith died by suicide. Keith suffered from depression caused by the stress he experienced in his place of work—a company where he had worked for only a short seven months of his life. Growing up, Keith was full of life; he was a boy who was always able to conquer anything he set his mind to do. Keith’s zest for life was evident even as a young boy on the ice—trying his new skates when he was not quite three years old. […]
Resilience After Death of a Daughter
June 14, 2014
Life did not prepare me for August 15, 2001. In one moment on a very ordinary day, the world as I knew it inexplicably changed. I answered the phone to the panicked voice of a friend telling me that my 18-year-old and only daughter Ashley had been killed in an automobile accident. Little did I know that this one single moment in time would become the demarcation point in my life. Time just stopped, I felt frozen and in disbelief, I was paralyzed and in shock. Somehow I stumbled through the fog and within a few days of Ashley’s death, […]
Sitting in the Dark with Maya Angelou
June 11, 2014
Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud. ~Maya Angelou~ I’ve always had the feeling that life loves the liver of it. You must live and life will be good to you, give you experiences. They may not all be that pleasant, but nobody promised you a rose garden. But more than likely if you do dare, what you get are the marvelous returns. ~Maya Angelou~ I’ve been sitting quietly this morning, listening to the live-stream of Maya Angelou’s memorial service. To hear the words of so many, celebrating the life of a person who harnessed the circumstances of her […]
Pilgrimage Through Loss
June 10, 2014
Linda Lawrence Hunt’s book, Pilgrimage through loss is available here.
Grief and the Loss of Control
June 9, 2014
Possibly one of the hardest aspects of grief for me has been that I can’t control it. I spent the majority of my life trying desperately to control everything in it. I wanted life to be predictable and – above all – peaceful. The problem has been what I tried to control and how I’d gone about it. I spent many, many years trying to control the people and situations around me through careful, strategic use of my own words, actions (or lack thereof), and responses. It was exhausting and depressing. And as you can imagine, it never really worked. […]
A Marriage Survives the Loss of a Child
June 4, 2014
We have been traveling this grief journey after the death of our son, Clint, for seven years. We didn’t know what to expect along the way for ourselves or for the marriage. In the beginning, we stayed together because we had no energy to do otherwise. Then the suggestion was offered, to stay together because no one else could share the same memories of our son. This progressed to let’s stay together for our surviving son. We desperately wanted to be whole again for him. Time continued and we found ourselves communicating more and rebuilding our lives. Time traveled forward […]
