WE ARE SORRY about your loss 💛

I lost my husband of 49 years in February.  It’s been 6 months now & it just isn’t getting better. I cry every night. I stay so busy during the day just so I don’t think about it. 

I encourage those on the forum to just keep going. Sometimes we have a tough day or sleepless night. Maybe troubled souls cross our path. Or just trying to keep ourselves and lives together during these times. We slowly learn not to present ourselves in a vulnerable manner. And still be loving individuals. Time takes time. We are living in answered prayer.

Nicole, so nice to see you here. I haven't dropped by in some time. Except grief is always with us  Trying to enjoy what we can is a great reminder. There are so many challenges it's easy to forget wonderful places such as this. Where people just, know. I hope all on the forum are well as can be. Take care!

Nicole, you are so wonderful and nice!  You always have something positive to say. It is so very true what you are saying about grief. My sister and I still miss our Dad so much every day. We miss seeing him and talking to him. We really miss his wonderful advice. He was so much to so many. People who used to work with him or were his friends still tell me what a great guy he was. It makes me so happy. I think about him more when it the week of my birthday. The year he died, 2015, my birthday was on Monday. He died on Friday, October 2nd, which was my great grandmother's birthday. Every year, my birthday reminds me of the anniversary of his death. I have to go now. I can't see,because I can't stop crying. Thank you for your kind words and fantastic attitude. You are a real treasure. 🙂💌👩‍🏫

Hey Nicole! Thanks for sending love to my furbabies last night. Our girl cats really need it. Bristol, the Lynx Point, and Nova, the gray and white Manx haven't been feeling so well the last couple of days. The vet said that they are having bad allergic reactions to their new flea medicine. We have had fleas and ticks so bad in New York this Summer. We have had to give them lots of baths and bomb the house. Our boy cat, Stewie, hasn't been bothered as much. The girls have been infested and have been losing their fur in spots. The new medicine irritated them and made them sick.The vet suggested we try something more natural and less harsh. We have used coconut oil with some success. We have just been so worried and upset. We hate seeing them suffer. It makes you feel so helpless. Well, I have to go. Thank you for your encouraging and reassuring words. 🙂💌🐱🐱🐱👩‍🏫

@SummerOnTheWay1 happy to help out anyway I can! 

be sure to check out the section on AARP’s website with grief and loss support. There’s lots of good articles and information there!

www.AARP.org/griefandloss 

tc

Amy Goyer, AARP Family and Caregiving Expert

The anniversary of my husband's death is next Tuesday. I am dreading that day.

Laurel, I hope you had that support.  I came to the boards last night here, but wasn’t sure if I could post at first, but now see others posts on this thread the further down I go.  

The holidays are always a very hard time for me as I know others as well have that same feeling.  Keeping myself engrossed in my interests, but yesterday at Thanksgiving was hard with a family member in the hospital, and just us left to do pizza at the house.  Very hard night strugglg thinking about ALL of the family that is gone.  

Nicole, thank you for all your encouragement to those on the forum. Sometimes we forget what is bothering us until we stop in here. 

I'm new to this group. My husband of 45 years died June 3, 2024, from Alzheimer's.  He'd just retired in January 2021.  He was diagnosed later that year. I kept him home and was his caregiver.  

I am finding this second year much harder.  The first year was numbing with all that needed to get done and just getting out of bed on most days.  Now I find that the reality and enormity of losing him is sinking into the core of my being.  I'm in therapy, which has helped largely because it's a safe space in which I can share the same stories ad nauseam.  I've had the same therapist for years, and hubbie and I attended together from time to time.  That she knew him is comforting, especially when she shares her memories of him.

Hubbie and I had a wonderful marriage and were homebodies these many years.  I have a son who lives with me, a married daughter, and 3-year-old granddaughter in town.  I also have a best friend whom I've known since college and who lives about 5 hours away.  She and her husband have been here in my darkest hours during his illness and since.  

I don't know who I am without my husband.  Worse, I have no desire or motivation to find out.  I know two things for sure:  the cavalry isn't coming; and, you never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have.  

M heart is with each of you here.  We can do this.  

Peace,