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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Poem: Mom and Dad
September 18, 2009
Mom and Dad You taught me as your daughter The meaning of life, To stop and look all around me, To reach for the stars and Appreciate everything that life has to offer. You taught me as your daughter The meaning of love, To have compassion for others and myself, Listen, learn and understand Everyday is a gift of life. You taught me as your daughter The meaning of death, To brave its storm and understand That life is a full circle. You taught me as your daughter The meaning of life, love and death And, not fear them, but […]
Poem: Remembering Dad
September 18, 2009
These are the things you gave me, Dad, And these are the things I’ll prize… To find God in a field of corn And hope in each sunrise, To learn the greatest truths of all Seeing nature through your eyes. These are the things you gave me, Dad, And these are the things I’ll keep: A sense of soulfulness within And a faith that’s broad and deep, The pride that comes from a hard day’s work And the peace of a good night’s sleep. These are the things you taught me, Dad, And these are things I’ll treasure: That money […]
Grief Journey Includes Parents’ Deaths, Husband’s Illness
September 18, 2009
I look back now and ask myself how I got through a year and a half of taking care of my mother and father, who were both diagnosed with Alzheimer’s at the same time. I will never minimize the courage and strength it took to parent my own parents. I will never minimize the courage and strength it took to be by their bedside holding their hand and watching them die, only 36 days apart of each other. Saying goodbye to my father simply taught me how to lose one parent. It did not prepare me for the loss of […]
Pssssst . . . Your Pajamas Are Open
September 17, 2009
Nobody could possibly have prepared me for what it would be like when my mom died. I’m barely able to describe it, seeing as how I’ve lost my mind and all. What I can tell you is what it feels like. It seems to boil down to, “You’ve completely lost my mind and that’s perfectly normal.” This is typically said to me by someone with a piteous tone and a pat on the head; and I’m grateful as I can be for the tone and the pat! The word that keeps running through my head is torpor (“a state of […]
Darcie Sims: Grief, Hope and Healing
September 14, 2009
Darcie, author and President of Grief Inc. and Director of Training and Certification for TAPS. Talks about grief and healing. Darcie is a bereaved parent and child. To Learn More About Darcie https://media.blubrry.com/open_to_hope_1/audio.opentohope.com/2009/09/Darcie_Sims_091409.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Let Your Last Wishes Be Known
September 12, 2009
Evelyn Rose was my mother. She was a devout Catholic born at the turn of the twentieth-century. She never questioned dogma, doctrine or the infallibility of the pope. She believed we were put here on earth by God for a short time and that our life was a test of our choices about good and evil. How well we did in our earthly trials determined our fate in the afterlife. She believed, with all of her heart, that the greatest peace and happiness one could ever imagine would be seeing the face of the Creator and reuniting with her loved […]
Propelled to Purpose Through Grief
September 11, 2009
I wish I knew where you were. That would make life a whole lot easier right now. This is one of my true challenges; to understand what happened to you after you died. Over time, I am making sense of Life and obviously I need much more time to comprehend it. But how do I understand the mysteriousness of death – my precious dad’s death? Yes, I know you had cancer, it ravaged you, overtook you and you died. That is painfully obvious. But why at this stage of your life, top of your game and a young 70 years […]
How to Politely Decline Offers of Help While Grieving
September 8, 2009
Laura writes in: My father just died and my mother, a new widow, is getting lots of well-meaning invitations to lunches, dinners, etc. She is the type of person to worry more about other people than herself but the invitations are too much. I am trying to help her find the words to politely decline and guide people to ‘back off’. How do you politely decline social invitations when you’re just not ready to be around people after you become a widow? Dear Laura, What a compassionate daughter you are that in the midst of your own grief you are […]
When You Don’t Get to Say ‘Goodbye’ at the Very End
September 7, 2009
Towards the end of her life, my mom had a number of health issues. These included high blood pressure, diabetes, heart failure and eventually, kidney failure where she needed dialysis. In the fall of 1999, her right leg began to turn black and blue. It was diagnosed that her heart was not strong enough to pump the blood to the lower extremity. To correct this, mom had surgery on her artery to increase the blood flow. She came through the operation fine. She was alert that afternoon and was able to converse. The next day, the hospital staff tried to […]
