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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Telling the Children that Mom is Going to Die
April 29, 2022
Telling the Children My wife was dying, and telling the children was the next step. My wife and I struck out on our journey to prepare, protect, and parent our three sweet teenage daughters. There is no right or wrong way to convey this message. But there may be better or worse ways to help your children transition through one of the most difficult experiences of their young lives. Oddly, we did not realize the enormity of the task we were undertaking at the time, probably due to stress, fatigue, and emotional exhaustion. But we both felt in telling the […]
Dr. Tashel Bordere: National Alliance for Children’s Grief Healing Childhood Trauma
April 19, 2022
Tashel C. Bordere, PhD, CT is an assistant professor of Human Development and Family Science and State Specialist at the University of Missouri-Columbia. She serves on the Board of the National Alliance for Grieving Children, TAPS Advisory Board, and is a past Board member of the Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC). Dr. Bordere is a former Forward Promise Fellow (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation) and received the Ronald K. Barrett National Award (ADEC) for her research on bereaved Black youth. Her research, publications, and trainings focus on trauma, Black youth bereavement, suffocated grief, and coping. She has a co-edited […]
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Physical Health After a Death
April 18, 2022
David Richman, Steve Parker, and Rebecca Horsley Bara join The International Day of Hope and Healing after Loss is a free online experience brought to you by the Open to Hope Foundation with the mission of helping people find hope after loss. https://media.blubrry.com/open_to_hope_1/www.opentohope.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Physical_Health_After_a_Death.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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Tuesday’s Children: A Lifetime of Healing for Grieving Families
April 17, 2022
Terry Sears, Sallie Lynch, Kathy Murphy, join The International Day of Hope and Healing after Loss is a free online experience brought to you by the Open to Hope Foundation with the mission of helping people find hope after loss. https://media.blubrry.com/open_to_hope_1/www.opentohope.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Tuesdays_Children_A_Lifetime_of.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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After Death Communication: Christine Duminiak, Eben Alexander, Elizabeth Boisson & Bill Guggenheim
April 15, 2022
In need of a dose of hope? Our mission is to provide an uplifting day of hope and healing to those grieving the loss of a loved one. The International Day of Hope and Healing after Loss is an online experience brought to you by the Open to Hope Foundation with the mission of helping people find hope after loss. https://media.blubrry.com/open_to_hope_1/www.opentohope.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/After_Death_Communication_Christi.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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Dear Motherless Daughter: As Mother’s Day Approaches
April 14, 2022
Dear Motherless Daughter, You’re probably not looking forward to Mother’s Day this year—or any year. I’ve been motherless since I was eight and I still don’t look forward to Mother’s Day. Even when my children were young and celebrated me with handmade cards and burnt toast, I still felt sad that I wasn’t able to personally celebrate with my mom. When I was a kid, my dad and I planted window boxes for my mother on Mother’s Day. The colorful boxes sat under the two windows at the front of our modest, post-war bungalow in Nebraska. Ever since, flowers have […]
Dr. Donna Schuurman, Dougy Center: Five Ways to Support Grieving Children
April 13, 2022
The International Day of Hope and Healing after Loss is a free online experience brought to you by the Open to Hope Foundation with the mission of helping people find hope after loss. Dr. Schuurman has a 35-year history with Dougy Center, the first bereavement center for children in the U.S. She serves on the board of The Compassionate Friends Foundation, and is a Founding Board member of the National Alliance for Children’s Grief. She loves to ski, camp, and ride her Harley-Davidson. https://media.blubrry.com/open_to_hope_1/www.opentohope.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Dr_Donna_Schuurman_Dougy_Center.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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Don’t Rush Grief
April 12, 2022
Grief didn’t strike me the moment my mother died. Instead, my grief began when I realized my mother was dying, which was on her 78th birthday. Shock, disbelief, and sadness weighed on me from that moment on because I knew the inevitable would happen. When my mother passed away, I acknowledged that she was no longer in pain and had gone to be with her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, but I did not give myself space to grieve. I distracted myself from the pain by going back to work in an attempt to return to some semblance of normalcy. […]
As My Mother Lay Dying
April 11, 2022
Not Much Time Left A week before Thanksgiving, my aunt called me and said my mother didn’t have much time left, and the nurse on call at the hospice facility said I should come right away. I booked a flight to Houston the next day for my husband, our youngest son, and myself. We stayed at my mother’s house as we traveled back and forth to the hospice facility to sit at her bedside. By this time, cancer had ravaged my mother’s body. She no longer had any body fat and was down to skin and bones. The doctor placed her […]
