Our History
What started as a vision of two school counselors developed into a passion for many and is now a comprehensive grief support network for youth and families in Lincoln and surrounding communities.
- In 1994, as public school counselors and on their school's crisis teams, Pam Fuhr-Dinneen and Kay Kronholm founded Mourning Hope for youth who needed ongoing support and understanding beyond what was available in the community. Both Dinneen and Kronholm completed extensive research and training with leading national grief centers.
- The first support group offered was for teens. Shortly thereafter, support groups for younger children, and then young adults were added. Always, a parents/caregivers group has run concurrently - - a necessity for adults struggling with how to help their grieving children.
- A resource library and referral network for the entire community as well as additional support groups were added due to requests from families.
With the commitment of dedicated volunteers, experience working with more than 3,000 grieving youth and family members, and the grief center which opened in 2006, Mourning Hope is a beacon of hope, support, understanding and connection for those in our community who are grieving, especially youth and families.
Mourning Hope Poem
In honor of Mourning Hope, a poem written by William Kloefkorn for his daughter, Terry Lynn.
At Mourning Hope children
with loss yet glazing their eyes
bring something made special to them
by way of loss -- a shirt, a blouse,
a pair of khakis worn almost
through at the knees. My daughter
with other measures and cuts,
sews and fits and fills until
behold! Miracles in the form of pillows
emerge, and the children, some
far from having been children,
test their creations by pressing their
faces into them, their sad, delighted,
beautiful faces disappearing
into the moist and incomprehensible stuff
of their own and each other's loss.