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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Death of a Fiancé: Ann-Marie Attaie
December 31, 2015
Anne-Marie Attaie lost her fiancé Michael to a sudden and unexpected heart attack in the summer of 2000. With his death she came to understand the impact of loss and the need for compassionate care of those impacted by grief. She is the Administrator of Carelink Hospice Services in Hayward, California. https://media.blubrry.com/open_to_hope_1/audio.opentohope.com/OpenToHope_Ann-MarieAttaie.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Grief and Healing: Against the Odds
December 22, 2015
This is my story of being widowed at 25 and again at 55, and the deaths of my beloved wives—the first in November 1984 and the second in February 2014. It’s not only that I lost both of these women to an early death, but also that these relationships were once-in-a-lifetime love affairs. Becky and Susan were everything to me: friend, colleague, lover, confidante; the person I most wanted to have fun with and the one I wanted beside me in a crisis. These grief experiences were so different and yet similar: one informed by the other, yet each a […]
Grief to Grace : Mary Potter Kenyon
November 19, 2015
Mary Potter Kenyon is the author of three books. Her most recent is Refined by Fire: A Journey of Grief and Grace, which details her process of grief and healing after the loss of her mother, husband, and grandson in a three-year period. Refined by Fire recently received the 2014 USA Best Book award. She is a frequent speaker and columnist of the topics of grief, loss, and healing. https://media.blubrry.com/open_to_hope_1/audio.opentohope.com/OpenToHope_MaryKenyon.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Then and Now: The Roller Coaster of Being ‘Thankful’
November 16, 2015
THEN (2008) “Michelle? Are you there?” It was a good question. As the basket passes with blank cards – a tradition in our family for Thanksgiving – my arm seizes, refusing to lift itself and accept the basket. I know what is coming, and so the logical and emotional sides of my brain slip on their boxing gloves. I’m expected to write what I’m thankful for, throw the card back in the basket, and hear it read at the dinner table. I understand the importance of carrying on this tradition; I do, even though my beloved husband died just three […]
Letter to a Loved One, Twenty Years Later
November 1, 2015
Dear Joanne, Today marks twenty years since I walked you over the threshold and out of your life on this earth. It feels like yesterday. It feels like 100 years ago. I cried last night at the benefit for the Breast Cancer Fund. It’s complicated when I cry like that. I’m crying because you are no longer bringing your good nature, your fierce determination and your insight into this life. I’m crying because so many others are going through what we went through (the room was full of them). I’m crying in wonder and disbelief at all the changes we […]
Elaine Mansfield: Death of a Husband Guest
October 29, 2015
Elaine Mansfield leads workshops and bereavement support groups and writes for Hospice and Palliative Care of Tompkins County in Ithaca, NY. Her writing reflects her forty years as a student of Jungian psychology, mythology, meditation, and nature. Since her husband’s death in 2008, her work has focused on a search for love, meaning, and healing in times of grief. https://media.blubrry.com/open_to_hope_1/audio.opentohope.com/OpenToHope_ElaineMansfield.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Spousal Loss: Spiritual and Physical Aspects of Loss
September 25, 2015
Body work expert Dr. Lyn Prashant joins Drs. Gloria and Heidi Horsley on this special episode of The Grief Relief show. Prashant lost her husband at a young age—they were both in their mid-30s when he passed away. She had worked in the grief field for years, and says that “talk therapy” was the standard place for grieving people to handle their grief. When she lost her husband in 1984, she found that she really needed physical ways to relieve the grief. “Talking alone does not allow the body to release the accumulation of grief,” she says. Physical symptoms of […]
AmyJo Mattheis: Loss of Identity
September 25, 2015
Drs. Gloria and Heidi Horsley talked with AmyJo Mattheis about losing your identity in grief. When Mattheis’ father died, she kept getting the feeling that “he’ll come back.” A former pastor and teacher at Pacific University in California, Mattheis blends her theological background with her professorship. She’s the author of Religion Made Me Fat, and is also a life coach. She walked down grief paths with numerous people as a pastor, but when it became her turn, it seemed like everything was new. “It was all my own,” she recalls, and had no map to get through it. She was […]
Diane Dettmann: Sudden Death of a Husband
September 24, 2015
Drs. Gloria and Heidi Horsley welcome Diane Dettmann to The Open to Hope show. Dettmann lost her husband and literally wrote the book on it. She’s the author of Twenty-Eight Snow Angels: A Widow’s Story of Love, Loss and Renewal. It’s a memoir about the unexpected death of her husband, who was 54 when he passed away. Dettmann also contributes pieces to “Women’s Voices for Change,” and has had her work featured on numerous blogs, online media outlets and in print publications. Dettmann’s husband’s death was somewhat expected since he was born with a chronic lung condition, but he lived […]
