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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The Difference Between Functioning and Grieving
July 22, 2024
Grieving over Libby A few months after Libby died, I sat for an interview with a local newspaper to talk about her death, her impact on the people she knew, and the charity her father and I created in her honor. If you’ll allow a mom to gush about her kid for a moment, Libby was no ordinary ten-year-old. Not only was she beautiful, with a smile that radiated her joyful personality, but she was intelligent, talented, and most of all, kind. She was the once-in-a-lifetime student that teachers raved about, who befriended the other children sitting alone at lunch […]
The Tension between Recent Loss and Future Vision
July 17, 2024
May 16, 2024, would have been my son Thomas’s twenty-second birthday. But instead of candles on a chocolate cake that my wife Elin has baked – Thomas’s favorite – we have candles like the one pictured above scattered throughout our home. I have one on the nightstand next to my bed. I light it each night before I surrender to the place from which God provides leadership for my life (Psalm 23). I’ve switched roles with Thomas. Normally, children are the legacy of their parents. But I feel a sense of duty to carry my son’s legacy forward so that […]
Tiffani Dilworth: Steps for Dealing with Trauma
July 4, 2024
Looking for ideas on how to deal with a traumatic experience? Join Dr’s Gloria and Heidi Horsley and their guest Tiffani Dilworth for tips and tools to deal with trauma. Tiffani is the author of 11 Tools to Help Manage the Aftermath of Trauma and Types of Grief. https://media.blubrry.com/open_to_hope_1/content.blubrry.com/open_to_hope_1/Tiffani-Dilworth-Steps-to-Dealing-with-Trauma.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Episode 219: Mens Journey Through Grief
June 10, 2024
Listen to four men speak very candidly about the different untimely losses in their lives, and how they took this often tumultuous journey through grief. Join hosts, Dr. Gloria Horsley and her daughter Dr. Heidi Horsley, along with their guests Stephen Panus, Warren Kozak, Jon Lefrandt, and Johnny Sirpilla.. Stephen Panus is the CEO of Twisted Hair, a marketing and P.R. Agency. He wrote the book “Walk On,” after the death of his 16 year old son. Warren Kozak, has been a journalist for some of televisions most respected news anchors, his book “Waving Goodbye: Life After Loss,” was written […]
Episode 218: Navigating the Loss of a Child
June 10, 2024
Are you struggling after the death of your child? Is the pain so great that you don’t know how you will survive? Join hosts, Dr. Gloria Horsley and her daughter Dr. Heidi Horsley, along with their guests Johnny Sirpilla and Stephen Panus, as they speak candidly about their own experience of child loss, and how they not only survived, but eventually found hope. Johnny is a seasoned executive leader with a dynamic 30 year career. His life changed, and his mission emerged after the death of his triplets, two sons and a daughter. Johnny;s book “Life is Hard but I’ll […]
When One Loss Follows Another
May 27, 2024
I’m 12 years old and our family is living in a 3rd floor apartment. The phone rings on this summer day. Mom answers. I watch the color leave her face. I hear sentence fragments. “A lone driver…he didn’t see her…the truck was backing up……a closed casket.” Hanging up the phone, Mom tells all of us to come and sit down. She said that Julie, our six-year-old cousin, had won a bicycle and she ran outside to ride it. Julie hoped everyone would see her, but the garbage man didn’t. Julie died. It was hard to see my mom cry. It […]
Finding Meaning in Violent Loss
May 13, 2024
Finding Meaning in Violent Loss When I hear about “finding meaning” in grief, I feel a knee-jerk reaction to snap back with a salty, “What possible meaning can come from the violent death of a beautiful, sweet, healthy ten-year-old girl?” What I want to assure you of is this: I am in no way suggesting that the death of your loved one had a point. Had a deeper purpose. Meaning. I don’t believe that. I believe that the death of your loved one sucks. Really, really sucks. However, I ALSO believe that your world has changed and is never going […]
Toxic Positivity in Grief
May 13, 2024
Toxic Positivity in Grief When I first started devouring information about the grieving process after Libby died, I remember immediately being turned off by the overly negative messaging on social media and in some books about grief. People who were YEARS and YEARS out from losing their loved ones were still crying daily, unable to function. In one particular Facebook group, a member mentioned that she had lost her thirty-seven-year-old son TWENTY-TWO years earlier and still cried every day. And there she was, still in a social media grief group, complaining about her life. It was the most fucking depressing […]
Are You Sabotaging Your Grief Journey?
May 13, 2024
Are You Sabotaging Your Grief Journey? This article is going to require you to be a little bit brutal with yourself. The goal of the telling the truth principle is to create a baseline so that you know where you are starting and can decide how to move forward with your grief. Of course, you want to feel better. However, I’m not going to lie–you might be holding your own growth hostage. There are four ways you might be sabotaging yourself. It’s your job to read the descriptions, reflect on your thoughts, emotions, and behavior, and be honest if any […]
