When the ONLY person you want is the one you've lost

Hi everyone,

To keep a long story short: I lost my father to this f*****g disease we call "cancer" about 18 months ago. He was the love of my life. EVERYTHING that means anything is tied up with my dad. And I currently have no will to live without him. For any moderator who may see this, please don't worry about suicide - I do not plan to kill myself. However, I have absolutely zero - and I mean ZERO - interest in anything else in this world, which no longer contains the most important and wonderful thing I've ever known - my father.

I'm writing this post not to get "advice," since that has always been totally useless. I'm writing this to reach out to anybody who feels the same way - do you feel that the only person you want to talk to is the one you've lost? That all other people and all other relationships are second-rate (sounds harsh, but it's how I feel) and largely pointless? Here are things I've tried and found useless:

1) Counselling (4 different counsellors) - utterly useless

2) Talking to friends - utterly useless (they mean well but their empathy skills are extremely poor)

3) Writing about how I feel - not entirely useless but not much good

4) Posting here occasionally - not entirely useless but so far of very limited use

Here are the two things that almost everyone says, both of which are also useless:

1) "Time will help" - maybe it will; maybe it won't. I wouldn't be so sure in my case. Since my father was my entire world, and since I've lost him, I don't see how "time will help." Is time going to bring him back? Obviously not. It is now 18 months since my father died and I do not feel different at all. Not one bit. Every day is exactly the same. I do not expect this to change any time soon. I would not be surprised if I felt like this for years. Hell, I would not be surprised if I feel like this forever. I have never loved anything or anyone in the way I loved my father. I have never been loved by anyone in the way I was loved by my father. Neither of those things is going to change. 

2) "Your father would want you to move on and live your life" - utterly useless advice. My father is no longer here! What he would want if he were here is irrelevant. What's relevant is that I don't have him with me, can't cuddle him, can't hear his laugh, can't feel his warmth, and so on. I don't want to "move on and life my life." I want to be with my b****y dad!

So that brings me back to the title of this post - the ONLY person I want is the one I have lost. The only THING I want (interaction with my father) is the one thing I can never have again. Instead I am supposed to spend the rest of my life on planet earth (which could be decades) without the only thing that ever really meant anything to me (on the deepest level). Everything else feels utterly trivial and pointless.

How are you supposed to live when the ONLY person you want to be with is the one you've lost? If you feel the same, feel free to reply,

Adam

Parents
  • I can relate to all your feelings bras 1548.My wife died 12 months ago. and Sunday just gone was the first time we could get together due to covid19.  Even a year on walking towards where her ashes were to be scattered. I broke down saying I can't do this at the area we all held hands as my lad poured her ashes into the sea.

    I miss my wife so much no more cuddles or her telling me to go to the doctors, As I have my own liver cancer to deal with, I'm also diabetic which brings more problems to deal with..

    I have told my GP I have no confidence in the surgery diabetic team. how can someone who is just out of nappies tell a 60 year old man how to manage my diabetes. If they had diabetes them selves then I'd take their advice. but when they have only read books, then I have no confidence and have ask to be transfered to the hospital diabetes centre. If my wife was alive she'd have me by my ear and pulling to the doctors.

  • It's 15 months since i lost my husband to this horror and it stays with you, changed my life forever.  And i know what you mean about doctors just out of nappies! Took my Dad (early 80's) for his prostrate cancer checkup recently and the treatment is no longer working, the dr looked about 15 and said "no point doing more treatment now at your age, if I get to your age I'd be pleased with what I'd had, you've got about a year left". Don't care how old you are, noone wants to hear their time is running out and noone will bother doing anything. Insensitive to say the least I thought, but that's the inexperience coming through i guess in these young drs that get to play God!

Reply
  • It's 15 months since i lost my husband to this horror and it stays with you, changed my life forever.  And i know what you mean about doctors just out of nappies! Took my Dad (early 80's) for his prostrate cancer checkup recently and the treatment is no longer working, the dr looked about 15 and said "no point doing more treatment now at your age, if I get to your age I'd be pleased with what I'd had, you've got about a year left". Don't care how old you are, noone wants to hear their time is running out and noone will bother doing anything. Insensitive to say the least I thought, but that's the inexperience coming through i guess in these young drs that get to play God!

Children
  • We had a young doctor tell us nothing would change with my dad's cancer in two weeks (it was found late, bowel cancer that had already metastasised to his brain), he was otherwise a fit and healthy 67 year old and while not curative, there was a treatment plan and he was dead 12 days later. I have no faith in what these people say anymore

    plus I don't really understand the "nothing will change in two weeks", like cancer knew it was found so decided to give a reprieve for a couple weeks? Was such a silly thing to say 

    the kick in the teeth was his letter came through to meet his oncologist the day after his death, scheduled for after his funeral

    its horrific that anybody would say that to your dad, and I really hope if they get to his age that someone treats them with more compassion

    life is just incredibly unfair