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
Diane Dettmann: Sudden Death of a Husband
August 15, 2013
Diane Dettmann is the author of Twenty-Eight Snow Angels: A Widow’s Story of Love, Loss and RenewaI, a memoir about the sudden death of her 54-year- old husband. She is also a contributing author for the “Women’s Voices For Change” website. Diane’s writing has been featured on other online sites and in various print publications. https://media.blubrry.com/open_to_hope_1/audio.opentohope.com/2013/07/Dianne-Dettman_02.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Widows Suffer ‘Absence of Touch’
July 23, 2013
Six weeks after my father died, I lost my fifty-six-year-old husband very suddenly. My mother and I have often discussed how sad and strange it was to be widowed at about the same time. Because of factors like our ages, some issues we faced were obviously very different. But Mother and I also found many similarities in our journeys through grief. Recently we were talking about the many challenges we have faced as widows, and how some linger. Mother said, “Your father has been gone seven years, but one of the hardest things for me to deal with even now […]
Sandi Amorello: Irreverent Widowhood
July 11, 2013
Sandi Amorello is an artist, author, speaker, serial entrepreneur, and single mother of three. Ten years ago she lost her husband and college sweetheart, Drew, to pancreatic cancer. She is the author of The Irreverent Widow: Shockingly True Tales of Love, Death and Dating…With Children in Tow. https://media.blubrry.com/open_to_hope_1/audio.opentohope.com/2013/06/Sandy-Amorello_01.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Getting Through Special Occasions
June 23, 2013
I will never forget how difficult it was to get through all the special occasions after my husband died. There were just so many “firsts,” whether it was Thanksgiving, Christmas, new babies being born, and Memorial Day. Whatever the occasion was, it was hard. What I learned from that was you just have to do what you need to do to get yourself through it. For example, it had been our Memorial Day tradition to drive 50 miles to the cemetery where my husband’s family graves were. We did that every single year, rain or shine, but on that first Memorial […]
My Words to Live By: I Am Open
June 18, 2013
I recently spent some time with a special friend and she told me how she came to name her upcoming book (which I hope to feature in a future blog). What follows is my reaction to the story of her experience. At a New Year’s Day service, which is a time of beginnings, my friend participated in a “White Stone Ceremony.” During the ceremony, each person was given a white stone and participated in a meditation which lead them into receiving a word that encouraged their spirit to celebrate a new beginning. My friend was asked to hold her stone, […]
Father’s Day: Time to Discard Anger and Guilt
June 11, 2013
By Sandra Pesmen — If you want to celebrate any holiday, especially Father’s Day, you have to learn to deal with anger and guilt. Whether we widows admit it or not, when our spouse dies, most of us feel guilty because we survived. We fear we may not have been as kind as we could have been all the time. We feel guilty because we didn’t prepare his favorite dinner more often. We feel guilty because we made him see movies (and people) he didn’t like. There are endless “guilts,” says therapist Judy Berg, of Highalnd Park, Ill., who spoke […]
Father’s Days After a Husband Has Died
June 7, 2013
My son recently asked me the question I have been WAITING for one of my children to ask for years. “Mom, how come you get a Mother’s Day and we don’t get a day?” Haven’t you been waiting all of your adult life to answer that question just like your parents did? “Because every day is Kid’s Day.” I never understood that as a child, but now as the mom of three small children, I wish I had a tattoo across my forehead that said it. I would be a hit at Chuck E. Cheese. Have you ever noticed how […]
Judy Schreiber-Mosher, LCSW; Transforming Your Life
June 6, 2013
From her husband’s death through her first three years of widowhood, Judy Schreiber-Mosher felt that the world had ended, but over time she found that the world transformed due to her willingness to ceremonially disperse ashes around the world; learn to eat, sleep, and travel alone; and eventually to date again. She is the author of Tincture of Time. https://media.blubrry.com/open_to_hope_1/audio.opentohope.com/2013/04/Judy-Sch-Mosher.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Widow Learns Where To Go From Here
June 4, 2013
Even though I’d heard the expression, “Whenever a door closes, a window always opens,” I didn’t see how that could apply to my life after losing my husband, but it did. Then, not long after my husband died, I lost both of my parents, too. I was just feeling so lost, with no sense of direction. Not knowing what else to do, I started asking, “What do You want me to do now?” The first door that opened was the opportunity to study with Dr. Deepak Chopra and other highly recognized teachers. Those studies led to my certifications for teaching […]
