How you can help me

Doogieboogie

I took this off another site; it focuses primarily on those who have lost a spouse, but I think elements of it would be helpful to anyone supporting those who have been bereaved.



How can you help me!
Please talk about my loved one, even though he is gone. It is more comforting to cry than to pretend that he never existed. I need to talk about him, and I need to do it over and over.

Be patient with my agitation. Nothing feels secure in my world. Get comfortable with my crying. Sadness hits me in waves, and I never know when my tears may flow. Just sit with me in silence and hold my hand.

Don't abandon me with the excuse that you don't want to upset me. You can't catch my grief. My world is painful, and when you are too afraid to call me or visit or say anything, you isolate me at a time when I most need to be cared about. If you don't know what to say, just come over, give me a hug or touch my arm, and gently say, "I'm sorry." You can even say, "I just don't know what to say, but I care, and want you to know that."

Just because I look good does not mean that I feel good. Ask me how I feel only if you really have time to find out. I am not strong. I'm just numb. When you tell me I am strong, I feel that you don't see me.

I will not recover. This is not a cold or the flu. I'm not sick. I'm grieving and that's different. My grieving may only begin 6 months after my loved one's death. Don't think that I will be over it in a year. For I am not only grieving his death, but also the person I was when I was with him, the life that we shared, the plans we had for watching our children and grandchildren grow, the places we will never get to go together, and the hopes and dreams that will never come true. My whole world has crumbled and I will never be the same.

I will not always be grieving as intensely, but I will never forget my loved one and rather than recover, I want to incorporate his life and love into the rest of my life. He is a part of me and always will be, and sometimes I will remember him with joy and other times with a tear. Both are okay.

Please don't tell me I can find someone else or that I need to start dating again. I'm not ready. And maybe I don't want to. And besides, what makes you think people are replaceable? They aren't. Whoever comes after will always be someone different.

I don't even understand what you mean when you say, "You've got to get on with your life." My life is going on, I've been forced to take on many new responsibilities and roles. It may not look the way you think it should. This will take time and I will never be my old self again. So please, just love me as I am today, and know that with your love and support, the joy will slowly return to my life. But I will never forget and there will always be times that I cry.

I need to know that you care about me. I need to feel your touch, your hugs. I need you just to be with me, and I need to be with you. I need to know you believe in me and in my ability to get through my grief in my own way, and in my own time.

Please don't say, "Call me if you need anything." I'll never call you because I have no idea what I need. Trying to figure out what you could do for me takes more energy than I have. So, in advance, let me give you some ideas:
(a) Bring food or a movie over to watch together.
(b) Send me a card on special holidays, his birthday, and the anniversary of his death, and be sure to mention his name. You can't make me cry. The tears are here and I will love you for giving me the opportunity to shed them because someone cared enough about me to reach out on this difficult day.
(c) Ask me more than once to join you at a movie or lunch or dinner. I may say no at first or even for a while, but please don't give up on me because somewhere down the line, I may be ready, and if you've given up then I really will be alone.
(d) Understand how difficult it is for me to be surrounded by couples, to walk into events alone, to go home alone, to feel out of place in the same situations where I used to feel so comfortable.

Please don't judge me now - or think that I'm behaving strangely. Remember I'm grieving. I may even be in shock. I am afraid. I may feel deep rage. I may even feel guilty. But above all, I hurt. I'm experiencing a pain unlike any I've ever felt before and one that can't be imagined by anyone who has not walked in my shoes.

Don't worry if you think I'm getting better and then suddenly I seem to slip backward. Grief makes me behave this way at times. And please don't tell me you know how I feel, or that it's time for me to get on with my life. What I need now is time to grieve.

Most of all thank you for being my friend. Thank you for your patience. Thank you for caring. Thank you for helping, for understanding. Thank you for praying for me.

And remember in the days or years ahead, if you need me as I have needed you - I will understand. And then I will come and be with you.

banie01

+1 On the above Doogie
I think I've read it before on Widow.ie....

I'm 4 and a half years down the road and I can guarantee you this.....every word of the above rings true and if riends and family could read this and and understand....
It would go a long way towards making the bad days a little easier.

Doogieboogie

Widow.ie is where I nicked it from, Banie!

I have showed it to several people, they all agreed that it was helpful - the bluntness of it is a lot more useful than murmured, vague condolences, (nice as it is to get them) we need something a little more concrete; we have specific requirements and anything which points those requirements out is helpful. Hope you're doing okay x

Reesy

Like this. Wish I'd had it last year when I lost my beloved Dad.

Perhaps we could sticky it?

carlybabe1

i could swear someone climbed inside my head and recorded my feelings and emotions. I didnt lose my partner, but i lost my son, and i too felt like the spectre at the feast. like I was only invited out of duty, but no-one knew what to say or how t3o say it, and i could see people visibly shrink when i mentioned him, afraid i might fall apart remembering and talking about him. I finally refused to betray my feelings in order to cushion other peoples, now i tell people, i have 3 kids, i sign all birthday and christmas cards with his name too, i refuse to pretend he didnt exist just to make other people feel ok. It happened, so deal, and i miss my baby boy every day and sometimes the loss of him stops the breath in my chest. Every emotion in that post i can relate to

CathyMoran

Very good post - I lost my mother on the 18th of June this year and it did not really hit me until a while after the funeral - people expect you to be over it straight away, it is not as simple as that, she was my mother. One point that I did pick up is that I should spend more time with my daddy without my husband so as not to upset him, I know that I found it incredibly hard to be with my mother in law all day less than a week after my mother's death even though I really love her (I got physically sick).

fataltragedy

This hits a spot where you know that the only person who could write something like this is someone who, like yourself, myself, whoever, has been through the loss of someone very important in their life.

I usually avoid crying yet this brought tears to my eyes. Beautifully written...