MartyT Posted March 4, 2015 Report Share Posted March 4, 2015 Dear ones, I think there is wisdom as well as helpful information in this article, and I hope it helps those who gather in this particular forum as they struggle with how to support a partner in grief: LOVING MY WIFE THROUGH HER GRIEF Written by John Thompson, husband of Open to Hope contributing writer Jill Kraft Thompson on Tuesday, March 3, 2015. March 25, 2015, will mark the thirteenth anniversary of the day my wife Jill lost her family. Of course, I am not talking about our son Franklin and me, but Jill’s previous husband Bart; their two young sons, Benjamin and Samuel; her mother Shirley; and her niece Sarah. Jill, Bart, and their sons were living in Avezzano, Italy, when Jill’s mother, sister, and niece came to visit during their spring break in March 2002. They decided to travel north to sight-see. Bart was driving their minivan on the autostrada just outside of Bologna when a US Army truck traveling in the opposite direction clipped the back of a semi-truck, which then lost control and whipped through an emergency turnaround before hitting the family’s minivan. Bart, with only a second or two to react, turned the minivan so that he suffered the brunt of the collision, saving the lives of my future wife and her sister. Often people ask me how I can live with a woman who is engulfed in such pain and grief. I can vehemently say that for the first years I was with Jill, she was a wreck, since we met in May 2005, only three years after the accident. At the time we were getting to know each other, I was interested in seeing if there was any way I could help this grief-stricken woman because I had also experienced grief and thought perhaps the lessons I had learned could help Jill. Beyond that, getting to know Jill was really not much different from getting to know any other person—because everyone has a past—Jill’s just seemed so impossible to bear. Read on here >>> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R.Everit55 Posted March 5, 2015 Report Share Posted March 5, 2015 Marty, Interestingly enough I just posted in one of my threads... That I've been reading off and on slowly... My Mary's old posts, and Shannon's old posts. And I am angry. I loved my wife through her losses. I did. And now she too is gone. I'm angry... I started reading this post... I will continue later. Thank you for sharing... Butch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R.Everit55 Posted March 5, 2015 Report Share Posted March 5, 2015 Marty, That is an amazingly heart warming story of courage, grief, support, and undying love. I teared up... Though my beloved didn't lose a spouse or children... She lost her siblings and we lost a child before that child had a chance to live. Yet Mary's courage through it all was so brave and strong. But now since her passing, I wonder how much help and comfort I was to her in her losses. Which were mine as well. Thinking...... Butch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MartyT Posted March 5, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2015 My dear Butch, I don't know of a spouse who has demonstrated more devotion, compassion, understanding and love than you have given to your precious Mary. You are the very embodiment of love, and I think your dear Mary was blessed to have you as her husband, just as you were blessed to have her as your wife. ♥ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kayc Posted March 5, 2015 Report Share Posted March 5, 2015 Butch, You were the one person she had constant in her life, always there for her. I would dare say you are the one that made her able to endure all else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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