Coping with Loss of Wife,Best Friend and Soul Mate

Hi, 

I have been with my beautiful wife for 30 years, and we have 3 beautiful teenage daughters.

My wife has been fighting breast cancer since 2009, with numerous Chemotherapies, natural rememdies, surgery and radiotheraphy - after 4/5 years she was in reammission, and then 9 months later in 2015 it came back harder and faster - she has daily lung drains, and was put on various chemotheraphy drugs and in April 2017 she was deemed stage 4 as it had spread to her spine, liver, kidney, both breasts, neck etc - We thought the worse.

I took 9 months off from work to care for my wife, and in that time I studied Chemotherapy treatments, wrote to Pharmecetical firms, and went through weekly blood results in order to do anything I could to save my beloved wifes life.

With my research I was also able to push the Oncologists and talk to them on a 1-2-1 level (even my wife said it was like 2 Oncologists where in the room !) - and I was the one who discovered why my wife had rejected the Chemotherapy in the first place due to her Albumin levels where very low.

Armed with Blood results every week, checking white cells, B12, Albumin I was able to tailor my wifes diet and she was able to have the chemotheraphy week on week.

Working together we managed to keep her alive for another 9 months, however sadly it caught up with her and she died in December 2017 just after Christmas.

Althought this is still very raw, I miss her every day, and have 3-4 breakdowns a day, constant crying, longing, and yearning for my wife - I wear her perfume and jewellery and still sleep with her dressing gown and have kept the house exactly as she left it so ther are no changes "when she returns home"

In 30 years we were together, we were only away from each other for 2 weeks, and we were more than Husband and Wife, she was my soul mate, best friend, we were a unit, we held hands, told each other we loved each other everyday, and I wanted no one else - she was my everything and the only thing in my life I was ever afraid of losing.

I still cry in pain that this could happen to someone so beautiful, and I have had the phases of grief doubt, and anger.

I hate the cliches, "be strong for the children" but how can I when I am not strong for myself, and the girls are teenagers, they are in their rooms talking to their friends, or boyfriends, and I am left on my own - the girls will grow up and I will walk the rest of my time on this earth without my beloved.

I particularly like the "it will get better after the funeral" this I can tell you is ********* ! it has got worse - I have more crying breakdowns, even when I go to places that me and my wife visited I hyper ventilate and freeze on the spot.

Yes I have couselling, but everyday the pain intesifies as does the emptiness and hollowness inside.

I am told I did all I could for my beautiful wife, and I would give everything I own just to have her back with me again.

I wanted to share my story, with others and I read a statistic once that said "75 men a day under the age of 50 are made widowers" and now I am in that statistic.

I am finding it hard to cope everyday, and it feels like my head is caving in with all the tears and emotions - I assume I am not alone

Simon 

Parents
  • Hello again Simon. Gord here. I haven't been on the site for a few weeks now and was wondering about you. Have you managed to do any decorating since I last spoke to you as you said you were going to try. I am finding it tough going at the moment again and try and go out but as soon as I do venture out, I just want to come back home. Life for me and life for you I'm sure is much the same. I can't see any meaning or purpose in my life as I am 63 years old and we were together 46 years and everyday gets a little harder for me. Please let me know how things are with you and your family Simon. Love. Gord.

  • Hello, Simon, and the other bereaved people on this thread. 

    You can read about my experience in my profile, but, briefly, I lost my wife to cancer at the beginning of April 2018. I feel I've been coping quite well: working part time at the moment, which I think has helped, as well as supporting our daughter through GCSEs. That said in the last few weeks I've had really low episodes, when I struggle to achieve anything. I'm 55 years old, together with my wife for 25 years. She was certainly my best friend too:we shared the same outlook on life: valuing the simple things and what money can't buy. She disliked shopping even more than I did!

    I'm going through one of these episodes just now, and am glad I've found this thread.

  • Hi Billy

    I lost my beautiful husband 12 April 18 , you say coping quite well , can you tell me what does that mean, it's interesting to know what that means, i don't actaully wale anymore ,  and I go to work and just get on with life but I am sitting here on Saturday night and crying my eyes out , everyone around me have a life , doing stuff , and i don't have a life , I  have friends and things to distract me if i want but i want my husband back, in am quite strong and independent and I know I will get there but not ready yet , and all his family are just getting on with their lives,  booking holidays, organising weddings , I may be wrong in saying this because I know everyone's loss is different , but the siblings don't feel my loss after 29 years there all getting on with their lives and i don't have one.

Reply
  • Hi Billy

    I lost my beautiful husband 12 April 18 , you say coping quite well , can you tell me what does that mean, it's interesting to know what that means, i don't actaully wale anymore ,  and I go to work and just get on with life but I am sitting here on Saturday night and crying my eyes out , everyone around me have a life , doing stuff , and i don't have a life , I  have friends and things to distract me if i want but i want my husband back, in am quite strong and independent and I know I will get there but not ready yet , and all his family are just getting on with their lives,  booking holidays, organising weddings , I may be wrong in saying this because I know everyone's loss is different , but the siblings don't feel my loss after 29 years there all getting on with their lives and i don't have one.

Children
  • Hello, Maldives, my name is Bill, not Billy, by the way.

    You slightly misquote me: I say:" I feel I've been coping quite well": past tense. In some ways things have actually got worse just recently. Also, it's only a feeling, not a statement of fact. Nevertheless I am managing to carry on working part time, and have been rather slowly sorting my late wife's professional and financial affairs, as well as helping my daughter through major exams. My wife's family are very supportive: her mother is still alive, and is grief-stricken by the loss of her daughter, My wife was always ver close to her sister, so likewise my sister in law is also struggling with it.  LIke you, however, I also feel very isolated. I come from a very introverted family, who hae never been very good at expressing their feelings: parents, brother, and indeed daughter, while my son has profound mental handicap, so he has, as far as anyone can tell, no notion about family relationships. 

    So my emotional bond with my wife was so important to me, and has so suddenly been cut. No, it's not at all easy for me.

     

  • hi bill  l lost my wife 5 weeks ago we were married 58 years i w orshiped her you survive 1 minit  to the next they give her 3 month she lived 5 week i cant bear to touch her ciothes i know what you mean with weddings etc but your not listening lts awfull  you have all my sympathy lwent to see a medium got some relief    xxterencem