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 …

It is the summer of 2007. At eighty-five years old, my mother is in the hospital for the second time in as many weeks. She is weak and tired and more than a little frightened. …

The road back from any loss is crooked and wide, and sometimes even circular.  My experiences as a primary caregiver in my home (with hospice support) with my husband, my father, and my female best …

Mother Agonizes Over Pet’s Burial
Question from a reader:  I am writing in hopes that you may be able to provide advice or support that I can give my parents who just had to euthanize their 12-year-oldd …

 
The left side of the bed where my husband used to sleep remained neatly made, hardly a ripple disturbing the quilted surface. I slept on the right side each night, where I had been for …

Last night, I slept in the middle of our king-size bed. It took me two years to do that. For 55 years, I shared that bed with my husband.
He never walked on water. Sometimes we …

When my husband and I were first married, we didn’t own any furniture.  We lived in furnished apartments for a few years and purchased a home when my husband was a resident at Mayo Clinic …

It is mid-afternoon, one week after my son went to heaven.  I lay in bed. I cry. I am angry.  I am a lost soul.  My tears soak my pillow. I cannot face the world.  …

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, …

By Beryl Kaminsky –
The young adult years –?ranging from late teens to early thirties –?span a period of life when most people are self-centered.? Life is all about gaining independence, finding oneself, having a good …

By Monica Novak -
When I was a child, I prided myself on making the best homemade cards to show my parents how important they were to me.? Father’s Day was probably the Big Kahuna of …

By Anne Dionne –??
It was Mother’s Day, 2001.? The boy whom I cherished the most, my son Michael, was 19 years old and slipping out of my grasp too quickly.
Where was that little boy with …

By Pamela Prime — ?
I awakened on Mother’s Day a few years ago with the awareness that I would be alone that day for the first time in thirty years. ?I recall lying in bed …

By Lisa Peacock –
Today I woke up and felt off. ?You all know what I am talking about. ?That nagging feeling that something is wrong but you just do not know what. ?I rolled myself …

By Nancy Manahan, Ph.D., and Becky Bohan. M.A. –
In their last Open to Hope posting, “Washing Diane’s Body: Caring at the Crossroad,” Nancy described the extraordinary ritual of washing Diane’s body. In this installment, Nancy’s …

By Nancy Manahan, Ph.D., and Becky Bohan. M.A. –
In our last Open to Hope posting, the extraordinary final moments of Diane’s death in Nancy’s arms were described. Here, Nancy recounts what happened immediately after Diane …