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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Angel Moms
September 8, 2009
by Sandy Fox I found a web site bereaved mothers may be interested in looking at and even joining. The site is www.angelmoms.com . Through their pain, these mothers have bonded together to offer each other love, support and understanding, something we all need. Their email group of moms chats daily, sharing tears and laughter. As I opened the site, the song “You’ll Never Walk Alone” played in the background. I felt very comfortable and comforted looking at this lovely site and reading about what they have done for each other and for others out there, not even members. If […]
Poem: God’s Greatest Work of Art
September 8, 2009
God’s Greatest Work of Art If a picture is worth a thousand words And nothing worthwhile is ever lost Then what is the value of memories For those who paid the highest cost? When a parent loses a child Words become a useless tool There is nothing to be said to undo the hurt And feeble attempts are only cruel A hug heart to heart in warm embrace Surpasses any useless phrase Shared tears and shared memories More healing than funeral sprays A photograph is a moment in time And sometimes it can capture our soul A place we can […]
How the Cemetery Helped After the Death of My Son
September 8, 2009
For me, the cemetery is a quiet and peaceful place. A quick walk or turn of the car wheels through the gate is like entering a different world. I leave the noise and cares behind as I enter the place where time loses meaning, and rest is eternal. When I was an adolescent, I enjoyed an occasional walk with a close friend through the cemetery near my childhood home. The cemetery was a mystical place. As we strolled along its narrow roads, we read with curiosity the names and dates on the grave markers. We pondered what the life of […]
Song Commissioned in Memory of Daughter
September 7, 2009
After my daughter died in February of 2007, my husband and I looked for ways to remember her. We did the usual things — had a memorial service, told stories, and gave money to the church. But we wanted to do more. How could we keep our daughter’s spirit alive? The choir was designated as the recipient of our church donation. I had been a choir member for more than 20 years and thought the money would be used for sheet music. The co-director of music had a better idea — a commissioned song in her memory. I loved this […]
Hard Time for Moms Near the End of the Journey
September 6, 2009
It had been a warm summer, the breeze filled with the scent of sweet jasmine. The bright magenta of the Bougainvillea bloomed with fierceness, its roots running deep, tapping into the water below. It bloomed despite the lack of watering and it stood as a physical sign of our family’s battle with cancer: we continued to bloom. It was early spring and Madison had just finished her last chemotherapy. We were at the hospital getting what was supposed to be a series of scans over several years. This was our first; if all went well, we would be able to […]
Parental Grief in the Wake of Homicide
September 2, 2009
Question from a reader: I’m writing this letter in hopes of finding some peace. It will be three years next month that my son was murdered. He was only 18. His mother and I were divorced when he was very young. At that time it was heart- breaking, knowing I would only see my son every other weekend. The years went by ever so quickly. Then he reached the tender teenage years and it seemed I lost control. My son was changing for the worst and there was nothing I could do to stop it. His mother and I had […]
Emotions of a Diagnosis
September 1, 2009
by Lisa Buell We sat in a room that no parent wanted to be in. The lighting was low; the walls were painted a soft mauve color, a weak attempt to calm our nerves. The gesture felt irritating, as if the color of the room could magically erase the image of our five- and- a -half month old baby girl lying on a table before us, a catheter in her urethra, a needle in her arm, and my breast in her mouth to soothe her through the harvesting of fluid and tissue. Afterwards, she slept in the arms of her […]
Heal Through Contact With ‘Inner Voice’
August 30, 2009
I have talked with many people about grief. Several years ago, I interviewed a young widow about the anticipatory grief she felt during her husband’s terminal illness. Her story was compelling. As death drew closer, the couple drew closer. “We went to a special place,” she said. “I can’t explain it.” Thanks to life experience, grief research, and my writing career, I understood her description. But I did not understand it fully until four of my loved ones died within nine months. The pain of these losses was searing. Listening to my inner voice, or soul, helped me to cope. […]
Handling Guilt Reactions
August 29, 2009
by Sandy Fox It is the two year anniversary of my friend’s daughter’s death. Whether she died from an overdose of drugs by accident or on purpose will never be known. What is known is that she did abuse drugs. Her entire life her mom tried to help her only child in any way she could. The end result: as hard as she may have tried, she couldn’t save her. She now lives with the guilt that only a mother can have, a guilt quite undeserved. Her story reminds me of two stories in my book showing two very different guilt […]
