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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Grief is Not a Neat Package
July 7, 2025
Grief is Not a Neat Package I hate grieving. There. I said it. A part of me did, actually. The part that abhors the tears I shed while writing this book. But I am not the only one with parts. Your soul comes prepackaged with them too. Have you noticed the maelstrom of reactions following your loss? Perhaps maintaining concentration has been hard, as your mind keeps slipping to memories of the deceased or fears about tomorrow. Your digestive system feels wonky. Reminders of your loss spur shame, guilt, perhaps even both. Maybe you avoid crying at all costs. These […]
How to Support Those Grieving
July 7, 2025
The Limitations of “Let Me Know If You Need Anything” Phrases like “If you need anything, just ask” or “I’m here if you need me” are commonly offered after the loss of a loved one. While often well-intentioned, these words can serve more to relieve the speaker than to provide real help. In my five years running a nonprofit grief support program and listening to participants, I’ve learned that such offers rarely translate into meaningful support. People often say, “I offered to help, but I never heard back,” as though their responsibility ends with the offer. Why the Bereaved Struggle […]
Fingerprints: Losing a Husband, Living with Grief
June 30, 2025
Losing a Husband When he used to take off his socks next to our bed and throw them ceremoniously to the cork floor, he would spread the fingers of his chubby peasant hands on the wall of our bedroom to keep his balance before rocketing into bed beside me. It took at least three years to have a finished wall in that bedroom. Seeing his greasy fingerprints all over my carefully chosen hue of green with a matte finish made me grouchy. Now, I recline with four pillows surrounding me as I look at his fingerprints, which are almost all […]
Living and Dying Together
June 30, 2025
Rosita and David Actions better explain love, as love is an action word. It requires a series of give and takes between a man and a woman to fulfill just a short 60,70 years on this earth together. I want to share a love story that I encountered during my time as a Hospice Chaplain years ago. Rosita and David had come from entirely different lives. Rosie, as she would have me call her, came from a very conservative, extreme spiritual family in Argentina. Her father was a lawyer and her mother a teacher. And David was born and raised […]
Pregnant After My Mother’s Death
June 30, 2025
Pregnant After My Mother’s Death I woke up screaming, as if I’d had a nightmare, only to realize this is my new reality. Screaming, crying, breathless, heart aching so deeply, I’m not sure it will ever heal. My stomach in knots feeling like I could puke or poop myself at any moment. My mom is dead. My dad and I found her yesterday. Today is my birthday. FUCK THIS! I don’t ever want to celebrate this day again. I can’t even think about eating, my world in shambles. Oh, by the way, I’m pregnant with my first child, not even […]
Grief Illiteracy: How Avoidance Adds More Pain
June 30, 2025
What Grief Illiteracy Has Taught Me Losing Andrea irrevocably altered my life most profoundly. Child-loss changes the course of one’s life forever. My world is a different place, and I am not the same person I was before. There’s the deep personal pain that words are unable to touch, but there’s also something else I didn’t expect: the way the world responded. Or didn’t. In the months after Andrea died, I learned that many people don’t know how to deal with Grief, especially when it’s not their own. I call it grief illiteracy: the widespread discomfort, avoidance, and misunderstanding around […]
Young Widow Can Imagine Not Marrying Again
June 25, 2025
Young Widow Can Imagine Not Marrying Again Ahhh, dating. Sooner or later this becomes every widow’s favorite topic with other widows. And there is a very good reason for this: Because we feel like it’s unacceptable to talk about it outside of the herd. But I can guarantee you that, for most widows, it’s one of the first things we think about after our husbands die. I don’t mean that in a bad way. It’s human nature to wonder what comes next. And for those of us who suddenly find ourselves involuntarily single, we want to know: Am I supposed […]
My Run-in with the Divine
June 16, 2025
My Run-in with the Divine As I drove teary-eyed in the twilight, I panicked, how in the world did I wind up here? How did my life end up like this? This wasn’t how I imagined my life would be when I was younger. In that very instant, I had an incredibly intense feeling that someone was in my car with me. So much so, that I whipped my head around to look in the back seat to see who was there. Of course, I was alone, but also, not-alone. I sensed something or someone with me — intangible, yet […]
Communications at the Edge of Death
June 16, 2025
Communications at the Edge of Death There is an incredible story about how Tiffany got her new lungs. First, she was on the donor waiting list forever. Then one day she got a call that there were lungs available for her. After many tests and lots of preparation, Tiffany bravely went underwent surgery for her new set of lungs. Lying in her hospital bed, after her operation was over, every orifice of her ravaged body was plugged into a machine. She couldn’t move or speak, since she had a tube down her throat breathing for her. Yet Tiffany felt grateful […]
