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Need prayers.
I learned today my cancer has returned. 😢. I was diagnosed in Dec 2023 and had to place my husband in memory care so I could get treatment. had chemo and then surgery in April 2024. I’ve been cancer free for 20 months. My husband passed in August 2024. I will now have more chemo and more surgery. I’m thankful my DH never…
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Grief...
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Just Sharing
I stumbled upon this poem because the slide image of a dragonfly caught my eye. My dear wife, now gone for four months dearly loved dragonflies. I found them pretty and interesting but never quite understood her fascination. When we were at our condo in Florida sitting on the balcony, dragonflies would show up in numbers,…
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His Birthday is Today
My husband just passed on June 19, and today is his birthday. While there is never a good time to go, this is just too close for me. I am struggling in every way. How does one get through these important dates? I know the first year will be the worst, but this is beyond awful. People are calling & texting, and I'm hiding…
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Im 40 and he was 46.
My loved one of 6 years, 3 months, 26 days passed on November 29th. Today was my first day back to work. I was supposed to go in yesterday but anxiety struck me. I work in a pharmacy located in a doctor office. I only broke once today. However now I can't stop crying. I miss my Luis so much. I feel like i have been in…
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The Stage 8 Club
I first learned the term, stage 8, on this forum just a few days ago. Never new what i would call my life after she passed. It has been a little over three weeks since my dear wife left me and the family. It was a long eight year journey but thankfully she did not suffer physically or by some other health condition and she…
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Need to say no
I asked this in another discussion but came here due to the recent loss of my husband just a month ago. I am frozen right now with grief and am not ready to socialize. A cousin asked me to lunch tomorrow (we are not that close), as he is passing thru my area, and I said yes, but now I really don't want to go. And my…
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Talking To One Who Knows
My dear wife left us in August, 2025. That was when the floodgates of grief were finally opened fully and all that I had been managing for years was allowed to be unleashed. As so many have described, it is overwhelming and far more difficult than handling the care of my dear wife for years. It is such a raw,…
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Am I The Only One
I am trusting this group to be as tolerant, supportive and open as I have continued to promote to others as I share some thoughts that have only recently started to become clear to me. I am an older male born just after WWII and I know that I am perhaps out of touch with popular thinking about the role of the male in a…
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Input requested for oxygen use on very late stage dementia
I’m sorry if this question is inappropriate for this forum but it asks a question about very end stage dementia and I thought those her might be more knowledgeable and willing to provide some insight. I has also posted this question on the spousal caregiver forum. My DW has been in Stage 7f for about a year. She is…
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Beautiful video… they are always with us..
My step daughter sent me this today. She lost her Dad (my husband) August 2024 and is fighting breast cancer. Please pray for her. 🙏🩷💜https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1H4g5iJ38G/?mibextid=wwXIfr
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My Mom passed away October 5th 2025
Hello, I dreaded the day I would be on this side of the discussion title. It's been two months and I am in unbelievable physical pain, I resigned from a easy job, am in debt, no insurance, searching for a new religion, I have fear, terrible anxiety, had a few panic attacks, am confused, hated people and do not trust…
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Mom passed away 10/5/25 at 12:09 pm
She is in Heaven now. And a sleep not suffering anymore. Thank you God for mercy. Jesus preached the good news. He said if we believe in him we will be with him in heaven. And when Jesus returns he will raise the dead and death will be no more in a new Kingdom under him. My Mother was a minister with her Church and…
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I wont let dementia steal any more…
I saw this today in a divorce Facebook group and it hit home. A daughter told her Mom who didn’t want to decorate for the holidays to not allow divorce to steal your joy. Dementia took so much. Our future and my soulmate. I am going to work very hard to not allow it to steal my joy and the rest of my life. My husband…
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Caregiver, What It Means
I was very lucky to find several people to assist me as caregivers to care for my dear wife over the last 8-10 months of her life. Caregivers for loved ones with this horrible disease that brings us all here are quite special in my opinion. To be a successful caregiver for one with this disease requires more of the…
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Grief Differences Among Family
I wanted to reach out to others here for feedback. I struggle trying to help family understand why their grief for the loss of their mother or grandmother looks so much different than the overwhelming grief they see in me. I know each and every one misses her terribly, so it is definitely not because they cared less or…
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So instead of carrying grief…carrying my love?
I saw this on another site. it spoke to me. I have been trying desperately to leave the grief behind. Maybe this will help. I’m leaving you here. For one night I want to forget. And maybe smile. Grief: You can’t leave me behind. I’m tired. You are heavy. Sometimes you are just too much to bear. Grief: I am a part of you…
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Alone, A New Realization
It came to me overnight when, as is often the case, I found myself awake way too early. Thanksgiving came and went with dinner at one of the daughters home with most all our family and my brother's family attending. I made it through but, as i suspected, the world fell apart afterwards. I felt lost among all my close…
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The losses just keeps coming
I couldn’t decide where to post this: here or on the front porch(where I’ve never posted). I know not very many people visit here- but it’s a place to get my thoughts out. As you know, my spouse and I lost our son( April 2023). Then I lost my step-dad Feb. 2024. He wasn’t a nice person, but I had known him for 59 years. I…
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How To Find Purpose Again?
I knew where the path ended, the outcome never in doubt, but after so many years with my purpose being to care for my dear wife how do I find any purpose in going on? After 60 years together, with the last 10 or so caring for her as she suffered AD, my singular goal was to provide her care to keep her at home as she…
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Grief Counseling: Yay or Nay?
My beautiful Mom transitioned this past August. I miss her every single day. It's painful, actually, and I know only a couple of months have passed, but time is not healing. Every day without her is painful. As her only child and primary beneficiary, I have access to grief counseling that her health insurance policy offers…
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Heading into the Holidays Alone
The coming holidays will be my first without my mother or Roger. It seems like there is a lot out there about navigating the holidays around family and friends, but no real advice for those of us who have neither. The usual advice about finding a community dinner to attend or volunteer at just doesn't ring true for me. And…
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All the "firsts" at once
My DH passed September 27th 2025 and in November was his birthday. Our girls and I went to the cemetary and had cupcakes in his honor. Now there is 2 weeks till Thanksgiving, and 8 days after Thanksgiving we would have celebrated our 38th anniversary. 20 days after our anniversary will be Christmas. Ive been very…
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Guilt lingers where love was poured without measure...
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Where I Find Peace
My dear wife left us in August, 2025 after her 8+ year struggle with this nightmare. The going remains very hard at this point at home or trying to get out. After her burial, I waited until the cemetery notified me that her name had been installed on our grave site to visit. Unfortunately the cemetery is not close by,…
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Can't remember my DW pre-dementia
I am in stage 8. My DW was diagnosed in 2016 and died in August of this year. Her symptoms started in 2012. I cannot remember what my DW was like pre-dementia. It makes me so sad. I hope those memories will eventually come back…
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Feeling lost, dad has passed and am struggling to handle his estate
My dad passed a week ago. My mom preceded him in death. I have a copy of their will and I was his activated POA. The attorney that created the will is no longer living. What do I do next? Do I need to hire an attorney to instruct us how to process the will, file his taxes, etc.? Is there a checklist of all the things I…
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If missing them didn't have to hurt...
I've been hurting mentally & physically since my husband was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. The hurting became worse after he passed in August 2024. I recently saw an article about "Thought Stopping" to cope with grief. You can search for the Thought Stopping techniques online. It is helping but it takes practice. The…
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Never know when something will trigger profound grief...
I went to get a band-aid for my finger and found this. As my husband's dementia progressed, he couldn't remember the word for Band-Aids. So he took them out of the box and put them in this zip-lock bag and wrote BAND-AIDs on it…. I found myself with tears coming down my cheeks. Such a small thing but such a sadness… I know…
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Saw 4 hawks today…
I’m driving to attend a reunion with Marines my husband served with in Vietnam. 3 wives who have lost their husbands since I last attended with my husband 6 years ago will be there. My husband and I traveled in an RV and always counted hawks. He believed in Native American philosophy and hawks are good luck. On my trip…