Starting A New Year After an Alzheimer's Death

It's been eight months since my wife died with Alzheimer's disease (AD). I've moved on with my new life as a widower ... but it's definitely been a bumpy ride. I still "lose it" occasionally. Tears may come while listening to a song, watching a tender scene on TV, or during an event that I wish I could have shared with Clare. Sometimes just a passing thought of Clare brings painful tears There isn't one day since Clare's death that I have not thought about her or "spoken" to her in my mind. Not one day. I struggled with depression and sadness on many days for four months after Clare's death ... but all that changed when I had a proverbial "Aha moment" while reading somewhere that when you suffer the loss of a loved one, instead of feeling sad you should feel fortunate that you were lucky enough to have had that loved one in your life. Since reflecting upon those words, when those tears or feelings of sadness come I try hard to think about how incredibly lucky I was to have been with my true love for more than 50 years. That helps me ... a lot. However, I still think about things I wish we had done before Clare's AD changed our lives. I wish we had made a video or auditory recording of Clare talking about herself ... her childhood, her high school and college years, how much she enjoyed being a stay-at-home mom when our daughter and son were young, and how much she loved the teaching career she began when they were older. And I wish we had videoed Clare talking about the in...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news