Open to Hope Articles
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Celebrating a Daughter’s 30th Birthday, Without Her
October 9, 2013
I breathe a sigh of relief today… as I write this it is the last day of September, 2013. I love the September weather and the move to Fall. But it is a month full of emotions — good and painful. My daughter, Liz, would have turned the big 30 on September 12th. What haunts me most is that I long to know what the story of her life would look like at 30. What career would she have? Would she have found someone to share her life with? Would I be a Grandmother? In my mind, Liz will always […]
Sixteen Years After the Death of a Son
October 3, 2013
I am approaching the anniversary of my son’s death. It will 16 years since we heard the news from the county chaplain on duty that night that it was indeed our son, Adam, and his flight student, Jason, who had landed the plane on a city street and died in the fiery aftermath. Sixteen years since we had to plan a funeral, watched his body be laid to rest at the cemetery, and live in a grief so heavy that I thought it would cause my heart to stop with the weight of it all. A few months after his […]
Abel Keogh: Getting it Together After Loss
September 26, 2013
Abel Keogh is author of the memoir Room for Two, the story of the year of his life following his late wife’s suicide and the corresponding death of their unborn child. He is also the writer of the relationship guides Dating a Widower, Marrying a Widower, and Life with a Widower. Now remarried, he and his wife, Juile, are the parents of six children. https://media.blubrry.com/open_to_hope_1/audio.opentohope.com/2013/09/Abel-Keough.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Death by Suicide and Link to Drug Abuse
September 16, 2013
Several of my friends have lost older children due to suicide. In one instance, suicide was linked to drug abuse. I’m very concrned for teens and young adults in my community. Pot is becoming an “accepted” drug and, much as I hate to admit it, Molly, a terribly addictive drug, is surely here. Parents need to be on the lookout for drug experimentation and/or abuse. If your child is acting differently, avoiding contact with you, hanging out with a different peer group, doing poorly in schoool, coming and going at odd hours, argumentative, and depressed looking, he or she may […]
Multiple Losses: ‘Plowing Through the Pain’
September 8, 2013
Easter Sunday 2005 was expected to be like all other traditional Easters…church in the morning followed by the family gathering at my parents. We had anticipated this holiday to be extra special because our mother had recently been diagnosed with breast cancer and not knowing the severity, we treasured each moment. Unfortunately the day did not unfold as planned. Tragically, the day started with an early morning phone call to my sister giving the news that her 23 year old daughter had been in a terrible car accident. This being the second catastrophic news to our family, we were almost […]
Twenty Years After Child-Loss, a Mother Remembers
September 5, 2013
On October 22, 1990, I became the mother of two children. I will always be the mother of two children. Our daughter, Rachel, was already nine, but we’d been unable to conceive a second child after my husband’s shocking bout of cancer two years into our marriage, and so after several miscarriages and years on the artificial insemination rollercoaster, we’d arranged to adopt. It was a boy. He was a month early. We were thrilled. Bob and I flew to the birth mother’s southern city, made our way to the hospital, and stood at the nursery window. The 4-pound incubated […]
Motorcycle Accidents and Helmet Laws
August 28, 2013
It happend again last week, another death of a young man in a motorcycle crash. The man wasn’t wearing a hemet. My home state of Minnesota used to have a law requiring all motorcycle riders to wear safety helmets. Because of protests the law was repealed. Please, please, if you or your child drives a motorcycle, wear a helmet and other protective gear. These senseless deaths must stop. Take a safety course if you haven’t done it yet. This will help to prevent more tragedy and grief.
Chance Meeting and Comfort in a Discount Store
August 26, 2013
I went to my favorite discount store to see the new fall clothing. While I was pushing my cart past a woman, I commented, “Passing on the right.” After I passed the woman I turned to her and said, “We’re looking at long-sleeved tops. It’s hard to believe summer is over and fall is here.” She smiled a bit and looked at me. “I’m here to buy something to wear to my mother’s memorial service,” she said. “My mother died two days ago.” “I’m so sorry,” I said. The woman went on to tell me her 29-year-old son committed suicide […]
Personal Growth Following a Loss: One Parent’s Story
August 22, 2013
Providence blinked facing the sun Where are we left to carry on “Until the Day is Done”, by R.E.M Providence Blinked According to Dictionary.com, providence is defined as, among other things, the foreseeing care and guidance of nature over the creatures of the earth. Until May of 2002, I would have accepted that definition without reservation. I felt protected and maybe even immune from the tragedy that affected other individuals in society. Arrogance didn’t drive this perception; I just never allowed my mind to go to the deep, dark places where others already had been. However, providence did blink (mightily, I might […]
