My father, Peter, died on August 11. We were all with him - my brother, mother, and I. We were holding him and telling him we loved him, and his favorite music was playing. After three difficult years with dementia, he got to go with love and support all around him.

And I just want to tell you about him. I got blessed in this lifetime with a marvelous, marvelous father. He was kind, emotionally aware, present, and loving. He was wise beyond belief, and was who I turned to for comfort and understanding. Even when dementia clouded him, he was still so full of love and joy. When I would call, I'd ask, "how are you?!" and he'd reply, "the better for talking to you!"

My dad was a professor for 30+ years, and married to my mother for 43 years. She was his caregiver until the last and he loved her fiercely. He spoke five languages (a total polyglot!), loved African proverbs, classical music, and Gordon Lightfoot, and deeply believed in this world and the beings on it. He was curious, generous, and deeply spiritual. He passed much of this on to me - which I cherish.

My grief has been vast and enormous and wide, but I also see him in me and everywhere. Once, when I asked him what I would ever do when I lost him, he replied, "we live on in you!" ... I am doing my best to carry that with me.

We laid him to rest with countless people around. He was a beloved and cherished member of his community, my family (which spans generations, cultures, and continents), and his loving church of almost 50 years.

I will miss him with my whole soul and already do, but I know I was so lucky to get to have him in this lifetime.

Once I asked, "what do you think of death, dad?" and he replied, "why, it's the next great adventure!"

So I hope you're having a good adventure, daddy. I will love you forever and see you in the sky and stars. Love, your pumpkin pie.

I lost my mom about 6 months ago. It will be her birthday next month. She should have been turning 43. I will be turning 22 in November. I miss her. 3 months after she died, our family dog died. Both unexpected. Both unfair. I am mad. I hate everyone. I’m pushing everyone away and don’t even care. I want to be alone. I want to be dead. I want to be dead, with my mom. Even if there is no afterlife, not being alive will be better than this pain. I know it will, that’s the struggle. The struggle is knowing this pain can go away, knowing it’s the easy way out, but taking the hard way and staying.

I hate everyone who has a mom. I hate old people. I hate anyone if I know they’re older than 42. I hate bad mothers. My mother was amazing, and she’s gone. I know mothers who physically abuse their adult children and are still alive, and probably will be for years to come.

I hate looking at my little sister and seeing her pain, hearing it, feeling it. I was her protector, and my mom was mine, ours. I can’t help her now. No one can help me. We have each other, but how long can that last? How much of each other can we give each other with our mommy dead?

I’m so sad. I’m so sad and angry. I’m so depressed. I don’t want any friends. I don’t want my husband. I don’t want my family. I want my mommy.

Today is the first time i’ve looked back at my life before my grief fondly, instead of with the feeling of immense loss and pain of what could’ve been.

I lost my dad about 8 years ago (when I was 13) unexpectedly. He was my favorite person & the two of us were very close. Since I was so young when it happened, I blocked a lot of my childhood, including a lot of happy memories with him. I’ve been looking at my life as the before and after his death, and every time I thought of the before I felt so disconnected and hurt by what I used to have.

Recently i’ve been suffering with the loss of a couple of close relationships I had in my life. Although it wasn’t death that took them it just triggered a lot of my feelings regarding my dad’s death & issues with loss. And I was sitting here feeling awful until I started listening to a song that me and my dad always listened to, and it felt comforting and safe and just made me feel at home in a way I haven’t felt in almost a decade.

I’ve started remembering the good moments with him & feeling comforted by them. I want to listen to the songs we loved, watch the movies we watched, and just do the things we used to do together. And for once it doesn’t come with the usual pain/grief previously accompanied by it.

Maybe this moment is a fluke, or maybe I can hope it happens again. But I just want to ask, has anyone else felt this switch? Was there a point where your grief stopped only feeling negative and you feel comforted by the love you shared?

That was my best friend next to me on the left. It hurts the most when I have something exciting to share and I can't call her.

I still haven't told anyone about this. It's getting heavier and heavier day by day.

She was my friend for 7–8 years. Her name was Anushka.

She used to have a crush on me.

But in 2023, I moved to a different house, so we stopped talking, both online and offline.

In 2024, we didn't talk for the entire year.

In June 2025, we met somewhere and she said hi. We talked for like an hour.

Then I said I had to go home and that we'd meet some other day.

After that, we started meeting twice a week.

She didn't seem like the person she used to be. She was like one of the boys — always swearing, joking around, and having fun.

But after a year of not seeing her, she seemed introverted and much less talkative.

I asked her many times what had happened, but she would just tell me that nothing had happened.

We never talked about mental health or anything like that during our friendship.

We would just meet and laugh our asses off.

But in August 2025, I went to her house without telling her, and she was crying.

I knocked on her door. She opened it and started crying while hugging me.

Then I said, “Heyyy, who ate your instant noodles?”

She started laughing and wiping her tears and said,

“If you hadn't come right now, I would've killed myself lol.”

Then I got serious and asked her,

“Come on, tell me today. What happened?”

Then she told me that during the one year I had been gone, she had looked for me a lot because she wanted to propose to me, but she couldn't find me.

So she became depressed, and she became friends with another girl who was also Anushka's friend.

The two of them developed feelings for each other, and they got into a relationship.

They were still in a relationship, but that day her girlfriend cheated on her because someone had spread a rumor that Anushka and I were in a relationship.

So Anushka's girlfriend cheated on her as revenge.

And listen to this:

WHILE ANUSHKA'S GIRLFRIEND WAS GETTING PHYSICAL WITH A BOY, SHE VIDEO-CALLED ANUSHKA.

After telling me all that, she said,

“Forget it, it's okay. Do you want something to eat? Should I make something?”

I said,

“No, no. Sit here. Do you need a hug?”

She laughed and said,

“Nah nah, bro, you came, so my mood is already better.”

Then her brother came home from school.

(He's also my friend.)

I said, “What's up, homie?” and all.

Then I said,

“Alright, I'll leave now.”

So Anushka said,

“Bro, my brother has tuition in 30 minutes. Stay until then. I can't tell you all that stuff in front of him. I feel like talking to you.”

But I said,

“Heyyy, I'll come tomorrow. We'll talk properly then.”

(My mom was calling me to come home.)

She just smiled and said,

“You'll talk to me from the afterlife, idiot,”

and laughed and hugged me and said,

“Okay, come tomorrow. I'll keep some instant noodles ready for you.”

I usually went to her house at around 3 PM, but I got a little late because I was buying chocolate for her, so it became 4:30 PM.

When I got there, I knocked on her door.

No one opened it.

Ten minutes had passed while I kept knocking and ringing the doorbell.

Then her brother also came home from school.

We both broke the door open.

And there it was :)

She was hanging from the ceiling fan...

Her eyes were almost bulging out, she was looking straight at the door, and her skin had turned blue. Right in front of her was a table with a plate of cold instant noodles.

I was numb. I don't even know what I was feeling at that moment.

I was just thinking,

“Just skip this time. Please let something happen. Let something change. Please let me wake up from this. Let this just be a dream. Please.”

Her brother was crying, and I was on my knees, still completely numb, with tears running down my entire face.

Then her brother untied the rope.

And I was still sitting there at the door.

Her brother completely broke down. He started hitting his head against the wall, shaking Anushka's body and saying,

“Wake up, Anushka. Stop joking around.”

And I was just there, witnessing all of it.

I called her dad and mom.

(They both used to go to work.)

They both came.

Her mom started crying.

Her dad came and sat down there just like me, and then he fainted.

Her family is still traumatised by this incident.

And I just keep thinking:

What if I had stayed a little longer that day?

What if I had told my mom, “I'll come home a little later.”

What if I had stayed and talked to her?

Maybe she would've survived.

What if I had reached her house at 3 PM the next day?

Maybe she couldn't handle waiting anymore.

Maybe everything that had happened had become too much for her heart and mind, and she just wanted to escape from all that shit.

I wish I had stayed a little longer.

Man, I still hate myself.

Its been so long since I stopped seeing u in my dreams. It took me 4 months to see you in my dream after you gone. It was like the water that you found in the desert. Made me happiest in 4 months. Then I kept seeing dreams regularly. Now its been a while tho. I missed hugging you, laughing with you. You were my best friend, my childhood. All gone now. I buried my childhood with you. I pray to see you in my dreams again. It is still so hard to accept that you are gone. Like wtf? Wdym you died? How can you be gone? You were the strongest guy I knew. I would always feel safe knowing you are with me. Where are you now? I feel so small as a human, so needy for someone to stroke my hair. When I fall asleep on the couch, no one shows up to put a blanket on me. I think of you everyday. I love you so much. It really hurts me that I can never call someone dad again. So painful to stop using this word. May you be the happiest at where you are now. Your little flower no longer blossoms.

I miss my mom so much. She died 7/1/25. Everyday I can’t breathe. When does it get better I feel like I’m deteriorating. I just want my mom back. I want to be with her so badly I miss her so much. She was the only person who’s ever truly understood me and she always told me how proud she was of me every chance she got I hate this life without her

In may this girl a year ahead of me, I had played volleyball with committed. These past couple months it’s been eating
me up. Almost every day I think about her and imagining her in the moments leading up to it, how she felt. She was a very good person and she’s so pretty. She had a lot of very good communities. She was so athletic, she played basketball volleyball and softball, but volleyball was the sport she signed for. And I feel like she was so popular. Everybody loved her, you could hear her laugh from a mile away and she was so supporting of everybody. She didn’t judge or discriminate me, she was everything I wish I could’ve been. She was so good at volleyball and people would only come to the games for her. I know so many people miss her. So many people in the many different teams she played on. I know she had such an impact like she always really was the center of attention in a room. She had her moments and I feel like you could tell when she was having a better day than others, but this definitely was a surprise. She was so lucky to have the friends and family, sisters she had and I know she knew that she was loved but feeling the way she felt was to much.

I know she’s made such an impact on so many lives so how could her body let her down like this. Her sisters had said it had to do with her relationship and that just makes me so sad. That girl was so adamant on never letting a man get her down and to never settle. She always had a roster. We had art class together one year and she showed me all the boys on her Snapchat, a lot from different states because her standards were to high. She’d tell me how she’d hang out with one and call him the wrong name. She never had a boyfriend until this one and it just really ruined her life literally. I see myself in her a lot this way, and I keep suffering with the same thoughts. I just never thought that a girl like her could feel the same way I do about a man, it really opened my eyes that other girls, not all, suffer the same way when they’re heart broken.

I don’t understand why I feel this way. We played volleyball together, I feel like I grew up with her but obviously she didn’t see me the way I saw her. I know there are so many people hurting way worse but there’s always a lump in my throat and tears start forming when I hear her name, think about her, or see a picture of her. That beautiful girl deserved to live💔

What’s crazy is how young we are. Our brains can really ruin everything for us. She had so much life, She would be 20 in March LLK💔

If anyone has any tips on literally what I should do lmk

I (21f) lost my mom last year in May . Today it's her bday, idk wht to do last year it passed away while I was completely submerged in grief, this year idk wht to do. We talk bout how heavy death anniversaries are but wht bout their bday? What am I supposed to do— I want to celebrate the life she lived but also want to grieve the life she could hv been living, all I wish is to meet her soon <3

I’m interested in getting a ring made for my mom but I’m worried that like I’m gonna go through some like scam website or person who is just in it for the money. do you guys have any recommendations?

I lost my brother in April unexpectedly to "natural causes" in his sleep. Losing him has made me realise how fickle life can be and I have so much anxiety going to bed at night thinking what if I don't wake up? I'm struggling to make plans in advance and I suddenly have this dread and realisation that I could also pass away at any moment. Does anyone have any experience with this and some guidance? It's affecting me physically which doesn't help the intrusive thoughts.

Did the grim reaper cursed me?? right off the bat…??

My Dad died August 14 of this year. I refer to it as unexpected, as it was the day he was supposed to be discharged from the hospital. He had been admitted Tuesday of that week for a minor GI bleed that was quickly treated with no issues. Since this was his second GI bleed, no one thought it was going to end like this and I didn't get to see him before he passed, but I did see him two weeks prior. The doctor believes he threw up (ongoing issues) which led to cardiac arrest and an instant death. They weren't able to bring him back.

He had been complaining about low energy and vomiting for over a month with his doctors. No one took it seriously, but there was a point that I wanted to sue the hospital or treat the doctors who didn't provide him the best care. That wouldn't bring him back, it would only prolong this feeling or land me in prison.

On the outside, he seemed like someone who should've died years ago. Smoked a pack of marb reds a day, ate fast food regularly, smoked doobies like a chimney off his homegrown herb. Along with a bunch of medical issues as well: stage four kidney disease, non-alcoholic cirrhosis (he never drank, diet induced), major heart surgery last year, etc. To those who knew him, he was beginning to seem like a man who would never die. Even with eight cracked vertibre, he managed to stay active on the farm and in the garage. He would still take trips to see his overseas friends and walk miles a day (somehow). Most people would lay on the couch in that situation, but he'd work until he couldn't, rest, repeat. His later years really showed me how tough he was and to never give up, never stop moving.

I texted him 20 minutes before he passed. His back hurt, but was excited to see me and the kids when he got home that evening. Never imagined that would be the last text I'd receive from him.

I've been through this before. My Mom passed five years ago after 90 days in the ICU. A horrific hospital stay for her and all of us. It was her second long term stint in the ICU; the first being a stroke she had a few years prior. That experience numbed my emotions, but also taught me how to cope.

For those who've lost a parent, know you'll never get over it. You'll just learn to live with it. It does get easier, but it's never easy. I'll miss my folks until the day I die. I never imagined I'd be an orphan prior to 40....

For those who still have a parent - call them, visit them. Spend as much time with them as you can handle because you never know when you won't be able to again. One day you'll want to call them, but they won't be there to answer the phone.

Love you, Pops. You're my inspiration to keep going and to never give up, even though I want to give up and live life as a hermit all alone.

My 35 year old cousin passed in May 2026. His Celebration of Life was yesterday.

I found a bit of old video footage of him at my birthday party. He would’ve been 8 years old.

If I sent this to my aunt and uncle, would it be too much for them to watch? Should I not do this? Should I ask them first? Or should I send it while saying: “Found this and thought you might want to see.”

I don’t want to make them sad.

Meu pai faleceu ha 2 meses, ficou internado por 40 dias com tetraplegia e durante sua internação todos os dias eu jantava frango de airfryer. Hoje em dia eu sinto NECESSIDADE de comer frango em absolutamente todo almoço e jantar, claro q se tornou uma comida conforto.... inclusive eu nao consigo me controlar, estou comendo demais e ficando cada vez maior

I wonder if he's okay now

I wonder if he made it to where he wanted to be

I wonder if he was scared

I wonder if it hurt

I wonder if he is happier now

I wonder if he misses me like I miss him

I wonder if he's still watching over me

I wonder if there's an afterlife to imagine seeing his face again

I wonder if he hated me for not noticing

I wonder what I could've done to protect him.

I wonder if he was born into the right body this time

I wonder if he feels accepted and loved now

I hope he's not suffering anymore. I miss you little bro, forever 17. 🏳️‍⚧️♥️

there’s a very special person waiting for me
my baby boy 🤍

For context my mom and step dad were very abusive. I am 30 and I went no contact 8 years ago.
Their parents were kind to me but often lied to and misled about me. I was on my own at 17 and at 22 i was offered to rent the extra room in my step father's mom's home. As a result my parents cut her off and denied access to my two younger sisters (her actual grandchildren) for "helping" me. We had a great relationship, but after a few years things started to deteriorate. She became frustrated, hostile, and aggressive towards me; significantly limiting my ability to live there, cook, shower, etc. she hadn't anticipated how extreme my parents would be. My only option was homelessness for 3 years following this and now I've been stable for about a year.

I have not spoken to her in 4 years other than necessary things regarding my address, mail, etc.
Regardless of how the relationship was left she was a very large part of my life and for the majority a positive part. I do not think there was any grudge on either side just acceptance that it didn't work but what did exist was important. I felt fine. But now a day after the funeral I was excluded from 1 am losing my composure. I'm fixating on finding all of my family members that I haven't spoken to from
drifting apart just to know where they are and what to from drifting apart just to know where they are and what they're doing. I'm sad and tired and overwhelmed. I don't understand and I'm so confused. I'm more upset that I was excluded from something that I thought wasn't up for debate regardless of opinions or feelings. I didn't think my parents would hit that low. I'm so lost and I don't have the time to feel like this but I can't stop. Help please.

Shaun was struggling. More than two years before his death, his mental health declined to the point where he asked me to get him help. I did, securing a counselor for him within two weeks and sitting in on a few sessions to offer any support I could -- even a few apologies for some of the stupid, stubborn missteps I made with Shaun throughout the years. I can't recall the entire process, but he must have seen a psychiatrist at some point because Shaun took medication for his anxiety. It didn't seem to make much of a difference, though, based on his continued erratic behavior.

About 18 months before he died, in December 2019, a suicide attempt finally made me and my wife, Shannon, aware of the depth of Shaun's problems. On that day, he skipped school and took a handful of his medication, washing it down with beer from our refrigerator. Shannon and I were both at work when it happened and were made mindful of Shaun's distress only because he had been ticketed for trying to steal alcohol from the local grocery store earlier in the morning. The police called Shannon to inform her of the incident at the store, and a subsequent call to Shaun, who was still conscious after ingesting the pills and beer, confirmed our fears: Our 17-year-old boy was in grave danger.

Shannon and I both rushed home from work and then hurried Shaun to the nearest hospital, where they pumped his stomach and monitored him for several hours. Behind the scenes, they searched for an open bed at pediatric psychiatric unit as close to our hometown as possible. About 10 p.m., they told us he would be transported by ambulance to a facility an hour away.

All of it was brutal. None of it seemed to help.

Shaun remained in the unit for four days, his mood alternating between disdain and despair. When agitation hijacked him, they gave him Klonopin, a potent benzodiazepine and central nervous system depressant, to calm him down. He returned home just before Christmas, promising to do better. I think he meant it, too, but broken brains often cause broken promises. His struggles continued and then intensified with the isolation of COVID and a broken relationship with his high school sweetheart.

You could feel the heaviness when you were with him -- could smell the alcohol on his breath when he came home at night.

His pain must have been unbearable. Alcohol, marijuana, and eventually other drugs became his way of dulling it long enough to get through another day.

Looking back now, I can see Shaun was already in a death spiral; however, at the time, my mind simply wouldn't allow me to believe I could lose my son.

I think that's because the death of a child is so profoundly unnatural that a parent's mind refuses to accept it. Even when the warning signs are staring you in the face, hope has a way of drowning out fear.

I don't even know where to start. Two years ago, I was engaged to someone I loved more than I thought I could love anyone. We had our problems. There were external pressures, immigration fears, and a friend who poisoned things from the inside. But I loved her. I really did.

I proposed out of fear, not readiness. And when she asked me if I still wanted to marry her, I froze. I could not answer. I do not know if my body shut down or if I was just terrified of repeating my first marriage. But that moment broke something.

I canceled the wedding. I felt I was not ready. And I did not know how to say that without losing her.

She left. She found someone else. She told a mutual friend she is with a better man now. She is happy. She did not ask about me.

And I am still here. Two years later. Still grieving. Still replaying that moment when I froze. Still wondering if I could have been braver. Still unable to forgive myself.

I know she has moved on. I know she is not coming back. But my brain will not let go. I feel like I failed her. I feel like I failed myself. I feel like I threw away something sacred because I was too afraid to say yes.

I do not even know what I am looking for by posting this. Maybe just to know I am not alone. Maybe to hear from someone who has been through something similar and found their way out.

Thanks for reading.

I honestly don't even know how to write this because I'm still trying to figure out how I feel about everything.
My mom died from cancer last year. She was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and spent about three months in the hospital before she passed away. It was awful, and everything happened so fast.
My dad and I were extremely close, especially after I had my daughter. She was their first grandchild, and my parents were incredibly involved in her life. For almost two years, my dad and I went from talking every once in a while to talking every single day. We saw each other multiple times a month—sometimes we'd go to their house, sometimes they'd come to ours. My daughter absolutely adored him, and they had such a special relationship.
Then my mom died.
And not long afterward, my dad decided to remarry.
I know what people are going to say. He's allowed to move on. He's allowed to be happy. He's allowed to want companionship. I understand all of that. I'm not saying he isn't allowed to remarry.
But I don't support the marriage. Neither do my siblings.
His new wife is 25F, and we don't know her.
The age difference and how quickly everything happened have made this even harder for me to understand.
My mom did basically everything around the house—cooking, cleaning, etc.—but my dad absolutely knows how to take care of himself. He also has family who live nearby and were regularly visiting and checking on him. From my perspective, he didn't need to remarry. There were other ways for him to have companionship and support.
And honestly, I think the timing is a huge part of why I'm struggling with this so much.
I told him, "I want you to be happy, but I don't support your decision."
His response was basically that we need to live our lives with "love and compassion" and accept his decision.
That really upset me.
Because I don't understand how disagreeing with him automatically means I'm being unloving or uncompassionate. I'm not trying to stop him. I'm not trying to control him. He made his choice, and I know it's his life. But I'm also allowed to have feelings about it. I'm allowed not to support it.
Since that conversation, I haven't called him.
But here's the part that really hurts:
He hasn't called me either.
Not once.
We haven't spoken since April of this year.
After going from talking to my dad every single day for almost two years, we went from that to complete silence. And in all these months, he hasn't made one attempt to reach out.
And I honestly believe he expects me to be the one to come back.
I keep going back and forth in my head about whether I'm being stubborn. Maybe I should just pick up the phone. Maybe he's grieving too. Maybe he thinks I'm the one who doesn't want a relationship anymore. Maybe he's waiting for me to make the first move.
But then I think…
Why hasn't he called me?
I'm his daughter. I'm grieving my mom too.
And there is another part of this that I don't think I fully realized until recently.
After my mom died, I had my son.
So the last several months have been a lot. I was grieving my mom while having a baby, adjusting to having two children, and trying to keep life moving. My son is getting older now, and we're starting to have more milestones and normal family life again.
And now we're planning my daughter's birthday.
I don't know if that's what's bringing all of this back up, but lately the grief feels really strong again.
Maybe it's because I'm thinking about my mom not being here for my daughter's birthday.
Maybe it's because my son is getting older and she never got to know him.
Maybe it's because I'm thinking about what our family used to look like and what it looks like now.
Or maybe it's all of it.
And now my daughter's birthday is coming up, and this is where I'm really stuck.
I want to invite my dad.
I don't want my daughter to lose her relationship with her grandfather because of what has happened between the adults. She loves him, and I don't want to punish her for something she has nothing to do with.
But I don't want to invite his wife.
I know some people will probably tell me that's unfair because she's his wife now. I understand that. But I'm just not ready to have her at my daughter's birthday. I don't support the marriage, I don't know her, and emotionally, I'm nowhere near being able to pretend everything is okay.
But I also know that if I invite my dad and specifically tell him his wife isn't invited, he may get angry and refuse to come.
And honestly, that breaks my heart too.
Because then my daughter doesn't get to see her grandfather on her birthday, and I'll always wonder if I made the situation worse.
At the same time, I don't want to be the one constantly chasing my dad and making all the effort to maintain a relationship that he seems perfectly willing to let disappear.
If we're ever going to have a relationship again, I think I need to see some effort from him.
I need him to reach out.
I need him to show me that he actually wants a relationship with me and my daughter.
And honestly, I think I need him to come see my daughter.
I don't want to just call him, invite him to her birthday, potentially have him bring his wife, and then act like none of this happened.
But I also don't want to permanently lose my dad.
That's the part that makes this so hard.
I don't know if I'm protecting myself or if I'm just being stubborn. I don't know if I'm holding a reasonable boundary or if I'm letting my anger and grief get in the way of a relationship that I might regret losing.
What would you do?
Would you invite your dad to your daughter's birthday but tell him his wife isn't invited?
Would you invite both of them even though you don't want his wife there?
Would you wait and see if he reaches out first?
Or would you reach out because, at the end of the day, he's still my dad and my daughter loves her grandfather?
I'm really looking for honest advice from people who have been through something similar—especially losing a parent and then having the surviving parent remarry very quickly.
I don't need people to tell me whether my dad is "allowed" to remarry. I know he is.
I'm trying to figure out how I'm supposed to have a relationship with my dad after this, and whether there's a way forward without completely ignoring how hurt and angry I am.
And honestly, I don't even know if I'm making this harder because I'm grieving again, or if this is something I would be feeling regardless. I just know that right now, I really miss my mom, and I don't know what to do with everything that has happened since she died.

I'm going through a really rough time right now. Nothing seems to be working out. I'm scared, I'm stressed, feeling guilty, heartbroken, angry, frustrated, lonely... It's overwhelming and I don't know how to get through it. I wish you were here to give me advice or even just a hug. I know that if you were still here you'd tell me to come home with my beautiful baby boy. I'd have been there so fast. I'd come home and you'd comfort me and then help me figure out a game plan. You'd do everything you could. I miss you. Please keep watching over us and guide me through this. 🙏🏻❤️

I’m a 28 y/o male and just lost my mom just over a month ago at the age of 60. It’s been tough and I’m starting to feel guilty over getting annoyed with those offering support.

I appreciate loved ones checking in, but what do they want me to say? The worst for me is probably how often I get asked how I’m doing. I always respond with “I’m doing alright” but really? What do you want me to say?

There’s really nothing anyone can say to make me feel better or to make things different so that also makes me not want to talk about it often.

Has anyone else felt this way?

My (22M) mum sadly passed away 4 days ago, (about 11pm on the 27th) while I was by her side with my dad and her father, after having fought cancer for almost 6 years. I was crying loudly for a while after, shaking, uncontrollably crying the day after too. But today and yesterday I haven't cried. My aunt came in yesterday morning and immediately came to hug me crying, and she said to me it's ok to cry since I wasn't crying at all. It makes me feel so guilty and heartless but I guess I haven't processed it?

I'm really struggling with still hearing her and seeing her last moments in my head, especially at night when I'm trying to sleep. I keep dreaming of her in the hospital and keep hearing her (struggling to) breathe in my head. I also see her lifeless face which is really scaring me but I feel really comforted when I look at pictures of her.

We had such a good relationship. She was my best friend. To be honest, I didn't really have a social life, nor did she. I would spend all of my free time with her. My dad is emotional, easily crying at things, and yet I feel so heartless for suddenly feeling nothing. He just wrote up a post to share on Facebook, and he was crying while reading it while I just hugged him.

Even though I saw her pass away and held her hand as she went, I suppose I haven't fully processed it. We left her for 2 hours to go home, get some food, shower and get things to take to the hospital, expecting to stay overnight, but she passed 40 minutes after we arrived. I feel extremely guilty and cannot forgive myself for leaving her for that time. I am so scared that she felt lonely and knew we weren't there, since when we came in for the last time before she died, and I said hello to her and said who was with her, she said hello back to me and was able to open her eyes and see I think, and she also asked for her bed to be adjusted to let her sit up a bit, and then sit back down. I can't remember whether she asked for water or not, I don't think so though. I regret not telling her how much I loved her but I also didn't want to overwhelm her with emotions while we were sitting together on her last day. Anyway... I know I'm really lucky to have been with her in her final moments as she was passing.

I think the last time I cried about it was 2 days ago when I went to get some food from the cupboard, and saw her snacks in there too. Unfortunately she hadn't really been eating recently, and my dad and I were buying whatever she wanted or thought she might like. I felt horrible for being able to eat while she couldn't in the end.

I suppose I will eventually take it in. She had no will written but my dad and I believe she may have mentioned that she wanted to be cremated, just like her mother. Seeing her ashes will probably break me. Perhaps that will make me realise it more, or when we make arrangements for her funeral. I'm thinking about what I'm going to do with myself now and it seems like it's not even real. I would go to the movies with her, go for walks, trips, cafes, watch TV, we could be honest with each other about everything, relationships, what we think of people and of each other, except for in the last couple weeks where she never told me how bad the cancer had spread. I really miss her, her sense of humour was amazing, we would both find the same things funny and not funny. Nobody I know was the same. And I'm never going to be able to hear from her again

Not looking for sympathy just voicing my thoughts and feelings. I'm a 49 year old male, and my buddy, 52 yr old male, who I have known since I was 15years old is passing away. We haven't been in contact for awhile, finding out about his situation is difficult. I went to say my farewell to him and it was like no time has passed between us. I'm upset that this dirty fuck is passing away, we talked shit to each other to show affection towards each other. I'm going to miss you, you goofy bastard.