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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How Does Early Death of Sister Affect Adult Siblings?
August 21, 2009
Question from TK: My sister and I lost an infant sister in an accident when we were 2 and 5, respectively. Now, 40 years later, I’m struggling to understand how our sister’s death affected us. Outwardly, we are successful with loving spouses and children. Yet there is still a void. Sometimes I think it’s silly to wonder how an event that happened at the edge of our memories could affect our lives today – but when I think of how different our lives would be now if our sister hadn’t died, perhaps it’s a wonder it has not impacted our […]
How Does Sibling-Loss Affect One’s Parenting?
August 21, 2009
By Elizabeth Devita-Raeburn — If you poke around in sibling loss literature, one unanswered question you come across is–does losing a sibling make sibling survivors more or less likely to have children? And do they tend to have “extra” children, just in case they lose one? FYI, I don’t have an answer to this. In my case, I simply had too much baggage to deal with to have children earlier in life. (I had my son, Henry, at 40.) But the question does interest me. As does the issue of how sibling survivors, like myself, parent siblings (something I have […]
Claire Perkins: Adult Sibling Loss
August 13, 2009
Claire Perkins shares the story of her grief and recovery after losing an adult sibling. To Learn More About Claire https://media.blubrry.com/open_to_hope_1/audio.opentohope.com/2010/10/Claire-Perkins-91009.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Matt Kuntz: Finding Hope After Suicide
July 23, 2009
After the suicide of his brother Matt Kuntz became the Executive Director of the National Association of Mental Illness in Montana. https://media.blubrry.com/open_to_hope_1/audio.opentohope.com/2010/10/Matt-Kuntz-072309.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Joanne Harpel and Paula Clayton: Hope Following Suicide
July 23, 2009
Joanne Harpel and Paula Clayton work for The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. https://media.blubrry.com/open_to_hope_1/audio.opentohope.com/2010/10/Joanne-Harpel-Paula-Clayton-072309.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Holden Caufield: Still relevant?
July 7, 2009
First off, I love J.D. Salinger and all of his books. So I was surprised when, as my step-kids went through that particular reading phase in high school when they were assigned Catcher in the Rye, they reported that they kind of hated it. Whaaaat? One big problem, they said, was that they couldn’t really relate to Holden, the teenage, trash-talking, car-wreck of a main character. As I thought about it, it made sense. I mean, the language is dated. Holden’s lifestyle–tony prep school, money, a lot of freedom, doesn’t resemble the way most kids live. (Unless you watch “NYC […]
Farrah, Michael, Bonnie, and Denise
June 26, 2009
By Michelle Linn-Gust — When I found out that Farrah Fawcett had anal cancer, I was taken back to the cancer of my friend, Bonnie, who died 3 1/2 years ago. I was with Bonnie almost every day, as long as I was in town, until her death a few months later. Today is my 10th wedding anniversary and it was Bonnie who sewed my wedding dress. Bonnie had the same cancer as Farrah. I had a Farrah haircut in fifth grade and my older sister was a big “Charlie’s Angels” fan. My cousins had a gerbil named Farrah. Farrah […]
Helping Your Child Cope With Loss
June 25, 2009
By Lauren Littauer Briggs — By the time I was eight, my first brother had died and my second was diagnosed with the same fatal condition. My great-grandmother had died, but I wasn’t allowed at the funeral. Instead, I peeked through the heating ducts to watch what was going on. My dog was given away with little explanation and my second brother was placed in a children’s home where he could receive the medical attention he needed. I never saw him again. My loss experience was more extreme than many and remained a dominant theme throughout my childhood. The usual […]
Getting Through Multiple Loses
June 11, 2009
by Harriet Hodgson, Search the Internet, browse a bookstore, and you find hundreds of books about grief. You will find personal stories, tributes to the deceased, grief poetry, text books, work books, and memory books. When I looked for a book about coping with multiple losses I could not find what I needed. As it turned out, friends were my “book” and they comforted me in many ways. Though I remember little about 2007, I remember it as the year of death. My daughter and father-in-law died the same weekend. Eight weeks later my brother died. Six months after that […]
