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Posts from 2025 (Page 2)

Parent Loss And Life Lessons

After your parent dies special dates like Father’s Day and Mother’s Day feel so very different. They hold history, traditions and memories that are special, sacred and now feel very different than in years past. It’s all changed when that parent is… missing.

Often, regardless of your age as an adult, when your parent dies it feels too soon. For some, that loss occurs at a young age. For others, they are blessed to have their parents longer. Age doesn’t seem to count when you’re grieving such an important person in your life. Grieving can be complicated when we’re adults. Somehow, at that time, we often feel “little” again inside.

When We Become Me: The Uncoupling Dilemma

In this context, the term uncoupling can be applied to anyone who has had a deep, meaningful relationship with a significant someone who has been a source of support and shared an enduring special connection — and lost them through death. This includes spouses, partners, close parent-and-child relationships, siblings (especially twins), cousins and best friends.      

A Different Grief – A Man’s Grief

Everyone goes through a natural grieving process when a death occurs. We each behave and express feelings according to the way we’ve been taught and as modeled by our society, our culture, our family, our peers and other influences. A belief system is created that affects the way that we perceive life, death and grief.

A Lifeline For Widowers

For Hope Group Members it’s a simple fact of life that the ratio of women-to-men in a Group is usually four, five or six to one. Unfortunately, men often grieve alone — to the detriment of their psychological, physical and spiritual health.

Organic Traces

We recently held a group in a member’s home. As we were all saying our goodbyes she asked me to come with her. She took me to her deceased husband’s closet, fully intact, smelling like his aftershave and the essence of his physical being. I could sense him. Although I never knew him in person, I felt closer, like I had just met…

Holding Onto Love

Grief can leave us feeling unmoored, searching for something tangible to grasp when words fall short and memories feel distant. That’s why we were so moved when we were introduced to Michelle — The Memory Bear Maker.

Memory bears offer a quiet, comforting presence, created from a well-worn shirt, a cherished sweater, or even a faded uniform — items that may at first seem like painful reminders. Michelle transforms them into something new: A bear with personality, warmth and soul. These handcrafted bears carry more than fabric; they hold love, history and the essence of the one who wore them.

Walking In My Shoes

Movement is life. The ways to move are countless. You can stretch, sway, dance, get athletic — or walk.
There are many kinds of walks. One of the most enjoyable is a nature walk where you take in the world around you with all your senses, being attuned to the wonders and beauty of nature.
Walking with your grief can bring solace as well as deep feelings that are better experienced than pent up inside. It can also be a reverie of memories of your loved one you want to revisit.
Walking can be a metaphor for going forward in your life. A moment in time. One step at a time.
I took a walk, came home, and wrote a poem. Something about the cloudy sky and sprinkles of rain awakened deep feelings.

Food For Thought: Solitude, Alone and Lonely

Appreciating solitude, being alone and feeling lonely are all related experiences that individuals who are grieving are familiar with. They are, figuratively speaking, places that you might visit frequently — or run away from because they’re so uncomfortable. “I’ll just stay busy. That way, I won’t have to feel alone or be lonely.” Unfortunately, that strategy just doesn’t work. Grief and the…

The Power of Hope

We always hear feedback from our members and graduates of our programs about how positively Hope Connection has affected their lives. I offer, at this time, my own personal perspective of how Hope Connection has affected mine from a facilitator’s point of view.

Healing Grief… Moment By Moment: A HOPE Connection Podcast — Grieving Alone

“Healing Grief… Moment by Moment” is a podcast created and produced by HOPE Connection. In each short episode Dr. Jo Christner or another HOPE Connection therapist offers a meditative exploration of a different aspect of grief and the healing process. As you listen, we wish you love, light and comfort. This episode: “Grieving Alone” (April 2025) — Jo Christner, Psy.D.