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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Learning from Others
June 28, 2009
by Sandy Fox My daughter died 15 years ago. Her dreams, hopes for the future…everything gone. My hopes for her: a family, a bright career, a wonderful marriage…all gone. Each year I think what her life would have been like now. She would have had children to love and share with her husband; she probably would have had a career in the advertising or public relations field. Or perhaps she would have preferred staying home and just be a mother. They would have traveled eventually, seen the world, learned from the experiences and been better people for it. Perhaps my […]
Will You Overcome Grief or Will Grief Overcome You?
June 28, 2009
By Jack Cain Someone has died, or you have experienced some other devastating loss, and grief has virtually taken over your life. It arrives in towering waves that engulf and own you, all at once. I can tell you this because I lived it. Three people in my family died in a 20-month period, of unrelated causes. My son, Adam, committed suicide at age 27; then my wife, Lenore, died of ovarian cancer, after having survived breast cancer four years previously; my daughter, Stephanie, died at age 34 of congestive heart failure, less than three months after the death of […]
Celebrities Get Attention, But Were They Loved?
June 26, 2009
When I heard of Michael Jackson’s death, I felt a wave of confused sadness. Immediately, I was flooded with memories of hearing his music in Japan, where I was raised. The teenie-bopper magazines sent to us from the U.S. held photos and stories about his life as one of the Jackson Five. My friend Josephine and I absorbed these when we had sleepovers. Years later, I watched his “Thriller” video over and over, captivated by his talent. In the mid-80s, when I worked at a refugee camp in The Philippines, the Vietnamese kids would blast his music through a cassette […]
Coralease Ruff: Coping with Sudden Death of a Daughter
June 25, 2009
Coralease shares the story of the loss of her child and her grief journey. https://media.blubrry.com/open_to_hope_1/audio.opentohope.com/2009/06/Coralease_Ruff_062509.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Linda Maurer: Loss of a Child in a Foreign Country
June 25, 2009
Linda Maurer has written two books for grieving parents after the sudden loss of her daughter while in Mexico. https://media.blubrry.com/open_to_hope_1/audio.opentohope.com/2009/06/Linda_Maurer_062509.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Growing Together
June 24, 2009
By Chuck and Cathi Lammert – Over the many years of working with bereaved parents, my husband, Chuck and I have had many questions asked of us about coping and growing together as a couple after the loss of one’s baby(ies). Interestingly, when we were running support groups, many women in the group would line up to ask Chuck more questions about their partner’s issues than their own dealings with the loss. It is common in relationships to have a need to understand and attempt to fix the other person. One of the biggest worries after the death of a […]
Baby Hoax Stemmed From Real-Life Grief and Loss
June 24, 2009
By Monica Novak — As I walked into the house on a Friday morning, my husband, Al, handed me the front page of the Chicago Tribune. “I think you should read this,” he said. The headline story read, “Blogger’s baby a hoax.” An unmarried Chicago suburban woman named Beccah, also known as “April’s mom”, had been blogging for two months about her pregnancy with a terminally ill baby, gaining support from thousands of people nationwide who encouraged her to continue the pregnancy. By the time Beccah claimed to have given birth at home to a girl named April Rose who […]
Return to Ensenada: A Father’s Journey Two Decades Later
June 21, 2009
On December 1, 1987, life as I knew it ceased to exist. I watched helplessly as my 9-year-old son’s tired and cancer ravaged body slowly released his spirit. I saw his partially paralyzed face find its proper form and like the graceful arch of a feather, his smile returned once more. His half slit eyes, almost crusted closed, now yawned wide open; dark slate turned to brilliant blue, like forget-me-nots floating in a pool of cream. In the split seconds of my gasp, the soft glow went out and blue faded again back to gray, and although I knew I […]
Father’s Day and Mother’s Day: A Painful Struggle for Bereaved Parents
June 20, 2009
By Cathi Lammert — Often times, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day are two of the most difficult days for bereaved parents. Some have told me that these days are so painful that they are not able to even acknowledge them for their own mom or dad, and they celebrate with their parents on a different day. Over the years, parents have looked at me with tear-filled eyes and asked me, “Am I really a parent if my baby is not here with me?” The answer, of course, is yes. I equate parenthood with love, the greatest kind of love. Does […]
