Grieving without dying

It was so touching yet heart wrenching listening to the panel of carers. Especially S who's husband isn't the man she married after the MI. Maybe they were "lucky" he survived...but having to 'grieve privately' for so long...i wonder. To marry the man you love and still be together physically, but emotionally, mentally just a familiar stranger..

J said it the best. To have loved, courted and married for 45 years, you grieve without dying. Grieving starts when Alzheimers begins to wrap its tentacles around your loved ones...tighter and tighter as the years go by, until one day, you cant see them anymore...buried under the enveloping arms of dementia. The grieving never stops, even after death... The hurt gets less, but it never really fades.

Such courage to come and share with us. I wanted to do something for them, bake them a tray of cookies or make a card. God bless them.