Laura Diehl
Laura Diehl, along with her husband, Dave, are the founders of GPS Hope: Grieving Parents Sharing Hope, which extends hope and healing to all grieving parents through a growing list of resources and a loving community to encourage one another in their unique, difficult journey. GPS Hope was started after the death of their oldest daughter, Becca, who left this earth on October 12, 2011. Becca died from heart damage caused by chemo drugs given to her at age three when she was diagnosed with cancer, at which time she also had her left leg amputated. (So the comparison of the death of a child being like an amputation is a very personal one for Laura.) On Becca’s 28th birthday, she had her second open heart surgery to insert a six pound pump which ran the right side of her heart, hoping to get Becca healthy enough to be put on the heart transplant list. Becca had a stroke shortly after receiving the pump, which was one of a dozen ambulance rides and the first of three emergency medical helicopter flights in her last eighteen months of life here on this earth. Photos and more details of Becca’s story are on the GPS Hope website (www.gpshope.org). Laura has written five books, including When Tragedy Strikes: Rebuilding Your Life With Hope and Healing After the Death of Your Child (Morgan James Publishing, New York, 2016) and My Grief Journey: Coloring Book and Journal for Grieving Parents. Dave and Laura live in Southern Wisconsin, and Laura loves to travel, which is good because she has traveled as an ordained minister for many years both nationally and internationally to well over a dozen nations. They are the parents of five children (including Becca who is already with the Lord) and a growing legacy of grandchildren. GPS Hope has a Facebook page to offer words of encouragement to bereaved parents at www.facebook.com/gpshope . Laura also puts out a short weekly video on YouTube, which can be subscribed to. Just search for her channel by name, Laura Diehl. One of the areas Laura is personally passionate about within the world of grieving parents is to walk with those whose faith in God has been shattered because of the death of one’s child. She is available as a speaker and/or minister, and can be contacted by email at laura@crownofgloryministries.org.
Articles:
When Others Want to Know Why You Aren’t ‘Over’ the Death of Your Child
Lately, the question I have been getting the most is, “How do I get the people around me to understand why I am still grieving the death of my child […]
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Don’t Send the Wrong Message to Surviving Children
When our child leaves this earth, so many of our future hopes and dreams go with them. I don’t even need to start listing them; we all know all […]
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What Do the First Five Years Look Like?
Exactly five years ago today, our daughter, Becca, left this earth. I have been doing a lot of thinking and reflecting, trying to put so many abstract thoughts and feelings […]
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No Longer the Victim: Emerging From Loss
When we have children, being a parent becomes one of the deepest parts of our identity. As a woman, my identity is being the mother of Becca, Christopher, Kimmy, Jamison, […]
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Open to Hope is an online community offering inspirational stories of loss, hope and recovery. We believe hope is the bridge between loss and recovery.
