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
He is Missed
January 24, 2012
I was at the mall alone, returning a few things from the holidays, looking at clothes that the “experts” say are in style (did anyone really perfect the poncho look?), and generally just enjoying shopping without having to worry about whether or not my kids would knock over an entire display of purses…when something happened that hadn’t happened to me in a while. As I was leaving a store, I felt a tap on my shoulder and when I turned around a woman said to me, “I know you.” And I said, “I know you, too.” But I couldn’t quite […]
Kim Kluxen Meredith; Who wants to be a widow at 40
January 19, 2012
Kim Kluxen Meredith credits her colorful childhood in the small town of Ames, New York for her strong character which she later had to call upon when she was widowed at the age of 40 and was left to raise two young children. Her book “Listen for the Whispers; Coping with Grief and Learning to Live Again” is a tribute to her strength and to that of her young family and their ability to work together for a new and happy life after the death of her husband David. https://media.blubrry.com/open_to_hope_1/www.opentohope.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2012/01/Kim-Meredith.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Cat Offers Solace in the Grieving Years
January 7, 2012
After my partner, Ruth, died in 2004, I found solace in a most unusual source, our sixteen-year-old calico cat, Daisy. Now, I know pets are often a great source of comfort to us, but Daisy was special. She was blind. I always thought I would need to take care of her after she suddenly lost her sight when she was about fifteen. “Sometimes this just happens to older cats,” our vet had said at the time, shrugging her shoulders. But Daisy didn’t really need any extra care. When I moved shortly after Ruth died, my cousin and I taught Daisy […]
In Widowhood, Woman Discovered her ‘Song’
January 2, 2012
I am a woman who has been reborn in the afternoon of her life. The death of my husband of 42 years could have stopped me in my tracks. Instead, it not only took me on a journey into grief, it also took me on a journey into self-discovery. I didn’t have an answer, but I knew I had a “song.” “A bird does not sing because it has an answer; it sings because it has a song!” Chinese Proverb After my husband’s death, I felt alone, undefined and invisible. At that time I wrote in my personal journal, “I […]
A Special Ornament
December 24, 2011
The four-inch light blue glass ball is always the initial ornament placed on our annual family Christmas tree. For our first Yuletide Season together, my new husband David and I travelled to my childhood home in upstate New York to be with family. We saved the money that we would have spent on a tree, and instead we used the fund for gas and presents. As a compromise, we trimmed a scrawny, potted Norfolk spruce that already filled an empty corner in our sparsely decorated first apartment. The special, delicate ball with the white handpainted message “David 1948” represented all […]
Couple Use Last Six Months to Express Their Love
December 18, 2011
I would sit for long periods with Jim in his kitchen when Lisa slept. He was a large man who had laid bricks his entire life, until he retired, five years before Lisa received a terminal prognosis of congestive heart failure. Unlike her husband, Lisa was very small, and, in the words of Jim, “the disease shrank her to the size of a tiny bird.” “Neither of us is into the touchy-feely stuff,” Jim said to me one day. “Lisa and I have been married for almost fifty years. Before we knew she was dying, I don’t remember the last […]
100 Things She Misses About her Husband
December 17, 2011
Several years ago, after much thought, I decided to create a blog that chronicled my journey through widowhood. It was my hope that by putting my thoughts and words on page one less person would feel alone on their own journey of loss. It was my hope that it would lead to healing…mine… and maybe someone else too. It was the next natural step for my writing. I had written for magazines and other people’s blogs, but I wanted a specific place to share my challenges and successes, my growth and possible regression at times, my sadness and my joy, […]
Using Loss as an Inspiration to Help Others
December 16, 2011
On March 9, 2010, the unthinkable happened, I found myself widowed at the age of 25 when the love of my life, my soul mate, was in a car accident while on his daily morning commute to work, just two months shy of our wedding day. Early on in my journey, I knew part of God’s calling was for me to minister to other widows. At the time, I was 4 months into my journey and I had no idea what my ministry was going to look like. I had a plan in my head, but it was my plan. […]
Laurel Diane Rund; Hope After the Loss of a Spouse
November 28, 2011
Laurel Diane Rund talks about healing and hope through the arts after the death of her spouse at the annual ADEC Conference, 2011.
