I started a thread about being a widow. I can't seem to find it. I am having another one of those periods of grief. I am having anxiety, panic attacks. Fear, I feel it and there is no reason why I should. Nothing bad has happened, I just all the sudden am overwhelmed once again. Will this ever go away? Does anyone else have this happen?
I've tried to explain this to people who ask how I am. I have one friend who, shortly after my husband died, said to me, "They say it takes about a year to get over it." I gently said to her,
"They don't know what they're talking about. Only those who have been where I am truly understand that you never "get over it." She's been divorced and said to me, "It's like a death." No, it isn't. It's the death of a marriage, not the death of a spouse. It doesn't compare. People try to empathize, and I appreciate it, but I really don't expect them to get it.
My husband died four and a half years ago. My aunt, who we looked after for eight years, also died three months after he died. Five months after that, my cousin, who was the only one who stuck by my side after my husband died, also died. My last aunt died two months later. Then a couple who were very good friends of my husband and me died within four months of each other. Four months later, my brother-in-law was found dead in his apartment. A few months ago, I lost another old friend. Another cousin was recently diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer.
For me, it's a daily struggle. I can't tell you how much I miss my husband. There are times when the grief is so overwhelming that I fear it will swallow me. Grief ebbs and flows, but it never leaves you. You can't file it under "Dead Husband," "Parent," "Child," "Sibling," or "Friend." You can't stuff it in a drawer or shove it to the back of a closet. It's always with you. The only thing you can do is the thing we all do. We carry it and learn to manage it because it has no place else to go.
My loved ones are always with me. I keep their spirits alive by remembering them and talking about them. They never leave me. I carry them in my mind, my heart and my soul.
Their spirits live in me.
Bella