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.
SORT BY RELATIONSHIP
A Father’s Love is Eternal
June 3, 2013
When I was a child, I loved to spend time with my father. Being the youngest girl in a large family, I learned early in life that if I wanted his undivided attention, it was up to me to be with him when he was alone. One misty morning as I tagged beside him on his walk to the far pasture, I heard my first echo. As my dad called to the cattle, his words returned. Fascinated, I tried. What I sent, I received. Numerous times throughout my life I have pondered the Law of the Echo. What we send […]
mom acting out
May 25, 2013
its been 6 yrs since dad died he was 81 mom decided to move from CA to Idaho to live with 2 sisters. progressively over the last 3 years mom has been reverting to some child like behaviors..some even nasty. 2 yrs ago she had a small heart episode with her heart beat being off so doc installed a pacemaker. Her health is good but docs have told her she needs to exercise in order to stop needing her walker. monday is the anniversary of dads death,so she is fixating on it as she always does. Out of 8 kids […]
AmyJo Mattheis; Loss of Identity
May 23, 2013
AmyJo Mattheis has walked with thousands through the grief of losing a loved one. With the recent death of her father, she has heard the numbing whisper insisting “he’ll come back.” A former pastor, AmyJo is university professor, writer, life coach, and author of Religion Made Me Fat. https://media.blubrry.com/open_to_hope_1/audio.opentohope.com/2013/05/Amy-Jo-Mathis_02.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
How to Keep a Parent’s Memory Alive
May 17, 2013
Losing a parent is never easy, no matter the circumstance or what segment of time in your life the loss occurred. The grief softens, but never leaves us. When holidays roll around, it is always a painful reminder of the hole in our hearts. The days without our mother or father are emphasized during their birthdays, and holidays like Christmas, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. After years of spending those times with heartache, I decided to manifest comfort and joy into those times by honoring my parents, instead of grieving them. We must first remember the connection to our loved […]
Going with the Flow
May 16, 2013
We’re all familiar with the different stages or phases in life – childhood to youth, youth to adulthood, and so on. Those stages could never happen if there wasn’t change ~ every day. Like a flower unfolding, each stage has its beauty and also its challenges. Those constant little changes become part of the rhythm of our daily life and we really don’t think too much about them. It’s the “big” changes that tend to rock our boat. That happened to me when I lost my husband and both parents in a short period of time. Everything changed, seemingly overnight, […]
Remarriage Surprise: A Mother-in-Law
May 11, 2013
On February 19, 2006, when Allan proposed to me at Hoff Jewelers at a mall in Maplewood, Minnesota, for some odd reason it never dawned on me that I’d be inheriting a mother-in-law too. I was 59 and Allan 60—youngsters at heart. Our spouses had died, so it was a second marriage for both of us. Still, he wanted to give me a diamond ring. Aglow as the gem sparkled on my finger, I pictured Allan and me hand-in-hand for the rest of our lives. In April, five months before our September wedding, I was looking forward to retiring from […]
My mother passed away about 5 years ago… .. .Lung cancer from smoking.
May 3, 2013
Didn’t she CARE? Didn’t she WANT to live? Her sister died of lung cancer from smoking when she was only 37. Didn’t that send a message to my mother to quit? I’m not mad at her, but I can’t ask her either – so it’s frustrating. There are so very many things that I never got a chance to say or do – so many questions that only she would have the answer to. Like, what was my first word? How old was I when I learned to talk? I write to her sometimes, but there is no reply. I […]
Washing the Bones: Grieving a Spouse-Loss
May 3, 2013
When I was first widowed, my overriding thought was that I couldn’t survive it, and I did not wish to. But the thought that I couldn’t go on without him was simply not true: it felt true, but it wasn’t. I had gone on without Andrew, to my dismay and surprise. Losing him hurt beyond any sort of pain I had ever felt or could have imagined. I hated it, but it did not end my life; it ended that particular chapter of my life, a chapter I liked a great deal, a chapter I thought would be the whole […]
A letter to my late boyfriends son
March 17, 2013
Hi there, My boyfriend passed away very unexpectedly a little over a month ago. He was epileptic and had a seizure and didn’t make it through. His 9 year old son (lives with his mother) is being unbelievably strong, he has such a gift of humour and positivity to help himself get through this, but at the same time an honesty to express what is going on in his world and the grief he feels. Brians mother is wanting to know if it would be a good idea for him to receive and read letters from other people who also […]
