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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Widower Honors Both Deceased Wives
November 20, 2023
Peter A. Lichtenberg, PhD was inducted into the Radnor High School Hall of Fame on Friday, November 10, in Radnor, Penn. Peter was honored for his work and impact on the field of gerontology and especially in helping to understand, aid victims of, and prevent financial exploitation of older people. He lost his wife Becky at age 25 to a sudden death and his wife Susan at 55 to breast cancer. Life Achievement Honor Feels Great It was four days of excitement, sharing, exploring, honoring, reflecting, and enjoying so much being “home”— at Radnor High School, with my brother, in Philadelphia. […]
Don’t Shield Your Children from Grief
November 19, 2023
In our predominantly fun childhood, the one thing kids were never allowed to do was to participate in the funeral-related activities when someone passed away. Grief and sadness were simply not on the agenda. When someone died, my brothers, sisters, and I would keep playing kickball and jumping on the trampoline, while our parents did funeral things. After the service, we rarely talked about the person who had died. Even in the years that followed, we didn’t do much to remember our beloved family members who were now gone. As an adult, I learned quickly that shielding kids from sorrow […]
Questions You May Ask in Your Pain
November 17, 2023
During the intense period after the loss of my favorite people, many questions ran through my mind. These are questions you might ask in your pain. Will the tsunami of tears ever end? Why do some people seem to skate through sorrow while I feel isolated and stuck? If my brain is this foggy and I’m contemplating hibernating ’til springtime, am I going crazy? Or is this just what grief looks like? Where are the people who came around in the early days? Do they even care about me? Or about her? I wish I could have seen my mom’s […]
One Step at a Time: Through the ‘Dark Valley,’
November 15, 2023
After months of trying to outrun the ache and sprint toward some imaginary silver lining, I realized that running from the pain can leave you crushed, lonely, and confused. In that desperate season, the Lord gently revealed something I’d never known: The only lasting way to the other side of shattering heartbreak is right through the dark valley, one step at a time. I wish someone had told me the deep sorrow, confusion, and grief-related anxiety would not last forever! Wherever you are on your journey, will you imagine a few possible scenarios with me? What if the pain won’t […]
‘What Do You Do with All this Pain?’
November 13, 2023
Have you ever gotten news that literally took your breath away? I surely have. It was the late-night call that my mom—my healthy, hilarious, newlywed mom—was gone. Nobody could have imagined her happily-ever-after ending so quickly. As weeks marched by, the shock wore off and I was left wondering, what do you do with all this pain? If you’ve ever lost someone you love—whether there was time to prepare, or their death came with no time to brace—you probably realize grief is one of the hardest things we ever face. That’s why I wrote Uncrushed. My hope is that my […]
Angry At a God I Didn’t Even Know
November 9, 2023
Angry at God Bereaved parents become experts on all things grief soon after the death of a child. We research. We read articles, talk to doctors and therapists. And we constantly self-assess, trying to figure out which of the five stages of grief we are in and how long before we get to the next one. We find facebook groups with other suffering parents and silently compare pain, wondering to ourselves, “Am I that bad?” or “How can she be doing that well so soon?” We gather information from all kinds of sources, desperately trying to piece together a new […]
Writing Helps Bereaved Find Gratitude
November 9, 2023
Writing Helps Bereaved Whenever you set out to write a book, an important first step is clearly defining your audience. When I started dreaming about Uncrushed, I assumed it would be primarily to help people navigate the loss of a loved one. That was and still is a big part of the reason for my new book. But something unexpected happened as feedback came in from the Launch Team (35-40 amazing superheroes who read through the book before release day). The comment that surprised me most came from a dear friend who has, thankfully, never lost a super close person, […]
Violent Deaths Leave Haunted Souls
October 31, 2023
Violent Deaths Leave Haunted Souls After death and before birth, consciousness (or soul-energy, if you prefer) is so intact that even when the physical body is abruptly destroyed, through accident or murder, for example, the remaining self-awareness often doesn’t realize what has happened. One example of this is the souls of those killed in the airplane crash for which Jana and Candace considered attempting a soul rescue. An undetected wind shear slammed a jumbo jet violently to the ground just north of the airport runway it was approaching to land. Though the physical bodies were removed from the crash site, […]
Resolving an Abortion Decision
October 30, 2023
Resolving an Abortion Decision In addition to resolving grief and helping parents-to-be, the afterlife healing circle can be helpful in other difficult circumstances such as miscarriage, abortion, or suicide. Many of us regard such events as the end of a budding life, and even murder. What miscarriage and abortion really mean is delay. In both situations, the soul will opt not to return to a physical body, find another mother and father, or wait until the time is better for the woman who was pregnant. The third option is what happened for a woman we will call Lori Dell. At […]
