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31 Mar 2013, 10:29 PM

Thanks for the Easter wishes Tracie. How did you spend the weekend?
Colleen 
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Reply by marstin
02 Apr 2013, 5:55 AM

Hi Colleen. Thanks for asking. My weekend was spent out working in the garden and clearing more things out of my house. It was such a glorious sunny weekend that it would have been difficult to feel down. I cooked a turkey for my daughters on Sunday which was always a ritual at my mom's for Easter. I even used mom's roaster, potato masher and platter and amazingly the food almost tasted like my mom was there cooking. I think she must have been. We had an invitation to my nephew's for dinner but the girls really wanted to just be at home. My youngest came home from work and noticed an aroma in the house that she hadn't smelt for a long time. It was Len's scent. In addition to that was a funny little bird that show's up every now and then that my dad used to whistle like. I think it truly was a family dinner.

What did you do for the weekend? I hope it was a great one!

Tracie
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Reply by Liticia
14 Apr 2013, 11:30 PM

Hi Everybody,

Memories the first year is still so painful.  Went to Cancun in March this year.  It brought back a lot of souvenirs for me.  Jocelyn and I went there many times it was for him and me number on place it brought back a lot of good memories.  It as been 10 months and I still miss him so much.

We had a park model and this year I am selling it camping with him was so nice and now that I am alone there it doesn t feel good no more  So I will be doing different things this summer  And I have to learn to make new friends the ones I had told me that when you are living a lost like that it is family that should take care of you and I replied yes but me and you don t have the same significations of friend  I told that lady that friends like her I don t need it.

People can understand what we are going threw.  Jocelyn left with all of our dreams a part of me  I need to have new dreams of my own and keep going with peoples that sees life positivly.  They re are days so easy and some so painful   I do laugh and cry but when you have a great love and loose it you asked yourself if you will ever find a greater love.  You know for now I feel so loved by him that I can t let go.


He will always be in my heart and in my prayers   

Have a great week another one is beginning!

 
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Reply by marstin
15 Apr 2013, 10:59 PM

Hi Liticia,

I'm glad that you chose to keep us up to date on your life. It has been 9 months for me since Len passed away and I find that at this point that it seems to get tougher instead of easier. Unfortunately, people seem to expect you to be farther ahead in the healing process than you actually are. We all heal differently and I believe that this is a very deep cut that will take a very long time to start getting better. I've found that even those closest to you can sometimes forget how difficult this can be and can easily hurt you with a single sentence. Although I have very few close friends, I have one that I turn to when things are really bad. Since she lives 4 hours away we don't get to see each other. She was in town for over a week and never called or came by like she had promised and waited until she went home to call. Then she scolded me for not doing some paperwork that I haven't yet gotten to. I felt so hurt and betrayed by her and nearly hung up the phone. Am I being supersensitive? Absolutely, but it doesn't make it feel any better.

I guess that even though we realize that life goes on, it doesn't mean it's easy. You should pat yourself on the back for how far you have come. I think you have done so well! You have travelled, made the decision to put the camping aside, and are focusing on your new life. Who knows what the future will bring when it comes to love but if you're like me, it will have to be someone pretty special to be allowed into your life. You have become much stronger than you've ever been before and have learned so much in the past 10 months. You are growing and that is a wonderful thing. Don't ever let anyone make you think that they have the answers to your life unless they've walked in your shoes.

Hugs to you,
Tracie
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Reply by Liticia
15 Apr 2013, 11:37 PM

Hi Tracie,

I try to be really strong but like you for me there are days that hurts so much.  I realize today he will never be coming back I see things differently.  I have stop smoking.  He ask me to think of stopping smoking after he left I did.  It will be 6 months.  I did it he gives me strenght to go foward  I talk to him often.  I even ask him something and say what he would have replied or I asked myself what he would have told me.

I wonder why firends around us are mean.  You seem to be surrunded by great daughters my kids are 20 and 22 and I think they can imagine what I am going threw they haven t been there a lot for me.  My twin sister is great.

See that you are going to sell your home.  This must be hard a lot of souvenirs I guess in that home.  

In june a year will have passed without him.  I think that June will be a month of remembering last year   It will be hard but people like me and you have the courage to wake up everyday and contimuing without that great love  Is having a lot of courage.  If you haven t lost a spouse or a child they don t know the pain we have.

You are great with people responding to us and the words you use  Thank you for even taking the time to write this.  Good people like you deserve a great life and I sense it will get better for you.  We will always cry them wathever happens to us.

Take care Tracie

Linda 
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Reply by marstin
16 Apr 2013, 4:27 AM

Hi,

Thank you for your kind words but it is through sharing this journey with people like you that helps me get through it too. How proud your husband would be of your decision to quit smoking. I have yet to take that step and so often I see Len giving me 'the look' everytime I cough. I talk to Len all of the time and my Mom too. I often feel them beside me and when I am stressed, which happens often, I can feel their presence trying to prop me up. I believe that they never really leave us.

I don't think our friends try to be mean but they truly do not understand how little time has really passed and how difficult it is to carry on alone. My daughters are 21 and 23 and both are wonderful girls but have been very little help with clearing the house out. The older one just makes sure that she's busy every minute of every day (she's the one that Len worried the most about because she holds everthing inside and is afraid to let herself feel the pain) and the younger one is more like her Dad and has a soft and gentle approach to things and discusses her feelings quite openly. Such different girls. I think your children are trying to figure out how to deal with their own pain and are probably afraid to load any more on you. I know mine are frightened that they may lose me too.

We will get through this one step at a time.
 Hugs,
Tracie
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Reply by PPP
16 Apr 2013, 11:40 AM

Hello Everyone

I  have gone through the one year anniversary of Avery’s death, April 1st, 2012.  He battled his cancer for one short year with courage and optimism; never thinking that he would die within a year of his diagnosis.

After a year, I thought I would be in a better place, not as emotional, more accepting of not having Avery with me.  It is different, but  I still go through the same loneliness, missing him dearly.  When someone is your whole life, feelings for them remain the same.  Time will dull the pain, as it has, but it is still there.

The hardest part is trying to find a new normal.  Everything we do reminds us of our loved one, whether it’s shopping by ourselves or trying to fix some thing  around   house without them. 

When you mention, will I ever love or be loved again?  It will never be the same for me but I crave the love he gave me and that leaves me feeling very empty inside.  I miss his love so much.  He was always telling me how much he loved me.  Maybe some day, I will find a friendship or love.  Life does go on they say and it does.  Trying to find true friendships is such a hard task. 

There is no time frame for grief.  My grief counsellor said it all.  “Who came up with the idea that after a year, you expect yourself to be in a different place with your grief?”  I found it harder approaching the year anniversary than I did at Christmas without him.  The realization that I had gone a year without him hits you hard!  I could never go a week when he would be away without missing him!  And now it’s been a year!  What happened in that year I ask myself ?  I went through days and days of crying off and on.  I still burst out crying out of the blue.  This is all part of grieving and we are allowed to be this way.  We are all normal and we all have our own way of grieving.  We are too hard on ourselves!

Take care,

Regards

Jane

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Reply by marstin
17 Apr 2013, 2:53 AM

Hi Jane,

How true about trying to find a new normal. Although we may appear healed on the outside, we are still so broken on the inside. I find most days that I can push my thoughts to the side while I deal with mountains of paperwork still and prepare my home to sell it. It's when evening comes and my daughters are away that the loneliness sweeps in.

I think the concept of being past the grief within a year partially comes from the fact that the option of councelling through the hospital is only offered for one year. I have searched high and low for a weekly group to join close to home and they just aren't available. I think that if I was able to keep my home, I would find a way to start one since I'm sure that I'm not the only one who has wanted to share their pain and not necessarily within that year window of time. I know that personally I have not yet really begun to grieve the loss of Len and my mom even though he's been gone for 9 months, due to all of the issues with estates, clearing two houses etc. I'm afraid of what is to come and that I may not have anywhere to turn to.

How right you are about finding true friendships. It appears to be quite a process. I would love to have a guy friend who could help me with the heavier chores around here and give me feedback from a male perspective yet not expect a romantic relationship. I would also love to have at least one really good girlfriend that wouldn't criticize me when I struggle trying to do 10 things at one time or expect me to be upbeat all of the time. I don't think that most people understand just how difficult it can be to lose the love of your life and the huge impact on your day to day living. Nor do they applaud how well a person is doing. In some I feel an almost arrogance, or maybe it's fear, that they still have their partners and yet I think to myself, it could happen to you one day too. None of us are immune.

I think the things that we have gained are compassion, understanding and a need to reach out to others on this path. I know that we will one day rise above the pain and emerge much wiser, gentler and stronger people.

Hugs,
Tracie
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Reply by Liticia
18 Apr 2013, 12:36 AM

Hi Jane and |Tracie,

Finding a new normal.  You know if I could get to know a men or women that is greiving in my region just to have supper and talk about our loss it would feel good.  Today in Thurso Qc  a house burned down and two kids died in that fire .  At work theywanted to know who was the family  or think they new the family maybe,  so I just said imagine how demolish the parent will be.  These news  its me hard it makes me cry because I so understand wath pain they will be in. 

I have to go and open the trailer but remembered that last year Jocelyn had prepared everything to bring back down there.  So it is hard I have to prepare all of that all by myself.  

One day at a time.  But like everybody says it takes one year but I agree it take more than one year.  Part of my dreams are gone with him even a part of me is gone with him.  I do make the best of the outside but yes the inside is so broken.

Sorry for my English but I try to express myself the way I can.  It is great to see that we feel that same greiving and we know wath is greiving is all about.

I really appreciate your messages it is good for my soul and to know that I am not alone

Good evening Ladies

Linda  
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22 Apr 2013, 12:57 AM

Hi everyone,

A new member just joined our Virtual Hospice community. Ziplock just lost his wife a few days ago. I think he'd like to hear from people who have "been there" and who "get it". Just click the link to welcome him on the new thread he started here: I lost my wife a few days ago  

Thanks
Colleen
 
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