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 7,000 articles written by our Open to Hope authors.

Articles Home

Telling the Children that Mom is Going to Die

Posted on April 29, 2022 - by Stedman Stevens

Telling the Children My wife was dying, and telling the children was the next step. My wife and I struck out on our journey to prepare, protect, and parent our […]

Read More

Overcoming Male Grief: The Widower’s Journey

Posted on April 29, 2022 - by Herb Knoll

Overcoming Male Grief For nearly 14 years, I have dedicated my life to the service of widowers worldwide, and during that time, I have learned much about what it takes […]

Read More

Inscribing a Headstone: The Importance of Tradition

Posted on April 21, 2022 - by Larry Hirschhorn

Headstone for a Son My son Aaron died this past March in a boating accident. He was 42 years old. He leaves behind a wife, three children and heartbroken parents. […]

Read More

Grief is a Dancer

Posted on April 21, 2022 - by Alisa Bair

Grief is a Dancer Grief is a dancer full of kinetic energy. At first, the stranger shows up with a dance card at the most devastatingly inconvenient time. The dance […]

Read More

Gifts in the Pain

Posted on April 14, 2022 - by Mike Bernhardt

Gifts in the Pain My wife Susan died unexpectedly in April 1991, the Sunday after Easter. I could never have imagined beforehand how transformative an experience that would be. Nothing […]

Read More

When Grieving, Listen to Yourself

Posted on April 14, 2022 - by Samantha Ruth

Meltdowns Come and Go Last week, I had a meltdown. Ok, a major meltdown! And I realized that I STILL need to give myself permission to grieve.  Almost two years […]

Read More

From Grief to Gratitude: How We Get There

Posted on April 14, 2022 - by Stedman Stevens

From Grief to Gratitude As we live through the pandemic, all of us feel the unusual weight in the air and sense the loss of how our lives used to […]

Read More

Dear Motherless Daughter: As Mother’s Day Approaches

Posted on April 14, 2022 - by Mershon Niesner

Dear Motherless Daughter, You’re probably not looking forward to Mother’s Day this year—or any year. I’ve been motherless since I was eight and I still don’t look forward to Mother’s […]

Read More

Don’t Rush Grief

Posted on April 12, 2022 - by Karla Noland

Grief didn’t strike me the moment my mother died. Instead, my grief began when I realized my mother was dying, which was on her 78th birthday. Shock, disbelief, and sadness […]

Read More

Accepting the Hand You’re Dealt

Posted on April 11, 2022 - by Mershon Niesner

Bitter or Better “You either get bitter or you get better. It’s that simple. You either take what has been dealt to you and allow it to make you a […]

Read More