I lost my bedbound husband two weeks ago after 3 years of being sole caregiver. How do I get over the grief at the many times I was annoyed?

I am very sorry for your loss. Please give yourself some grace because the truth of the matter is that you loved him, but you are human and caregiving is very hard and it takes everything out of you. I believe that he knows that you love him and you were burned out; in other words, you were emotionally, physically, and mentally exhausted. We go into caregiving with the best intentions not realizing that we are so exhausted and frustrated that we can't see straight. Just cut yourself some slack. You are grieving and part of that is the 'should've, would've, could've', in truth, you did the best job you could and that is all you (we as caregivers) can do.

May you find peace.

Sending you lots of hugs!💗

I’m sorry for the loss of your beloved husband. It may not seem related, but often when I’m looking to buy something I read reviews for whatever item it is. I always see that people are much more prone to write a negative review than a positive one, it’s human nature to report on something negative than something positive. You’re looking back now on a stressful time, hard beyond any measure, and falling into the human nature of seeing the negative things that happened instead of focusing on the good times and the wonderful marriage you had before all this. I hope you’ll be more gentle with yourself, look at the happy memories, offer yourself forgiveness, and have peace knowing you did the best you could in such a trying time

Dear MrsHoover,

My deepest sympathies and condolences. I'm so sorry for your loss.

Being a caregiver is the toughest job in the world. You did your best under very difficult circumstances. Lea said it so well and I find so many caregivers don't have enough support and try to shoulder everything on their own. We keep going every day even when we feel like we can't.

Please be kind and gentle with yourself during this sad time. It's only natural to look back and think we should have done things differently. I know I still do this with my dad and it's been 4 years.

((((hugs)))) Please know we are with you.

I lost my bedridden husband a little over 2 months ago now, so I can certainly relate to what you are feeling. My husband had vascular dementia, and many other issues, and I cared for him for many years, including the last 22 months of his life, where he remained bedridden. It wasn't easy. Caregiving isn't. Did I lose my temper with him at times? Of course I did. Did I always feel bad afterwards? Of course I did. I would always apologize afterwards, and I was always grateful when at times he would say that he didn't remember me hollering at him. But like you, I remembered.

My husband too remained for the most part very sweet, and kind right up to the end, and we loved each other very much, but caregiving takes it's toll on the best of us. You have to allow yourself some grace(as do I), and know that you did the very best you could. My husband had wanted to die at home, and even though it was hard, I was bound and determined to let him do just that.

So while it is important for you to grieve, please don't waste your time grieving what you shouldn't of said or done. The past is the past. Leave it there, and allow yourself to instead, grieve the man you loved and lost, and know that you did the very best you could.

My heart goes out to you. I truly feel your pain. I believe there has only been 2 days since my husband died on Sept 14th, that I haven't cried at some point in the day. And I'm ok with that. I will continue to grieve as long as necessary, and I will try along the way to be kind to myself as well. That is my wish for you as well, that you stop beating yourself up over the past and just be kind to yourself, as you grieve the man you loved. May God comfort you and give you His peace, in the days, weeks, and months ahead.

Many in this forum have lost a parent, the one who gave them life, the one who nutured them, the one who loved them unconditionally. But to loose your spouse is to loose your future, your better half, your intimacy, your dependence on one another. It is the one person you vowed to go thru life with thru thick and thin. No one has the patience of Job and I don't know if he could have kept his cool under these circumstances. We all get annoyed, frustrated, angry and sometimes resentful.

We experience grief because we lost a loved one. The longer and more loving the relationship, the deeper the grief. Your grief and your pain validate the significance of your relationship. My wife had Alzheimer's. She would mistake the closet for the bathroom. After one such episode I told her I was going to explode! To this day ( 3 yrs after her death) I regret those words. But I move on. So must you. You have to choose to resolve your grief. Not in a day, a month or a year. You'll resolve it in your own time. Seek out grief suport groups, talk to your pastor, seek professional counseling if you must. You did what you had to do. Now begin to do the things that bring you joy. I hope the memories of your days together bring a smile to your face. God bless you.

You might like “Getting to the Other Side of Grief, Overcoming the Loss of a Spouse”. Get the book at your library or from Amazon.

One of the reasons I finally placed my mom into a nursing home was that I found that my fuse was getting shorter and shorter, I would roll out of bed each morning with my head filled with good intentions and I seldom made it to noon before an ugly incident. Mom was in the nursing home for 18 months and she's been gone now for 2 years beyond that, although I still sometimes remember and feel remorse time really does make things easier.

I am so very sorry for the loss of your husband.

It is truly refreshing to see someone post with such transparency.

Everyone becomes frustrated during the most challenging times of caregiving. Please don’t feel badly or have regrets.

Even Mother Teresa who is now ‘Blessed Mother Teresa,’ now an ordained Saint became depressed and needed time away from her dedication to caring for others.

Mother Teresa would often spend four hours in the morning, in solitude, praying in her chapel before she attended to the dying. She did that to gain the strength and insight that she needed to care for the poorest of the poor, the sick and dying.

I would struggle when caring for my mom. I heard a beautiful homily in Mass where my priest said that we are not all called to be like Mother Teresa.

Often I expected too much from myself and felt like I had failed my mom, even though I knew that I loved her and took very good care of her.

It took others and my therapist to point out to me that I hadn’t failed.

I was human and did my very best. We all lose patience from time to time.

Be at peace, knowing that you did your very best. Your husband knew that you did your best and felt your love. He loved you.

He will live in your heart forever. Find comfort in knowing that he is no longer suffering.

Take care, dear lady. I wish you well.

There is no right or wrong way to cope with these matters.

Many of us cannot do what you were able to do. You cared for him until his last breath.

You will reflect on his life. Grieve, which truly starts before the actual death occurs.

We grieve for the person that we once had, knowing they will never be healthy and well again.

Please know that it is okay to move forward in your life when you are ready to.

I am so sorry for your loss. You are the first person I have seen correctly label this as grief. Most say "guilt" as though they were felons who did evil with malice aforethought. You already recognize that this is grieving. You understand what your poor husband went through. How could you not wish that you were a Saint rather than a human with frustration, exhaustion, human limitations. You already know you are grieving. I wish I could say this will go away forever someday, but there is SOMETHING in us that uses these single moments when we failed the test of perfection. Is it because we, from infancy, are exhorted to "be good"?
Or are we desperate to assign fault, as though were we to identify it we could cure everything?. Of all the many ways that it all went well for my parents at the end of their lives, I still cling on to two moments, one when my Mom was angry that my bro and I had to leave, and one when she said "Is there no way I could stay at home until I die", knowing all the while that there was no way. I remember these moments amidst all the LIFETIME of wonderful things; I still wish there had been SOME WAY I could have stopped those moments of grief or anger, could have escaped what I felt inside myself.
I hope there will come a day you will be all right with his leaving. That you will feel a kind of relief for you both. That he has no longer to be in that torment, that you no longer have to witness it. That there is peace for you. I believe with time--and what else can heal grief?--you will be all right. I know within yourself you already recognize what a marvelous thing you did for the man you so loved/so love. Know it at least rationally.

I'm so sorry for the loss of your dear husband; my deepest condolences.

You were given a very, very difficult job to care for a bedbound man with as many issues as your husband had. And you did it to the very best of your ability. Since you're human, you had your moments of frustration and annoyance, as ANY human being would have. You had an exhausting and often thankless job, yet for some reason, you expect that you should have done it 'to perfection' with absolutely no breakdowns or issues of any kind. Imagine if someone else was telling you THEIR story, and said they had some moments of anger toward their husband in the same situation? How would you counsel her? Would you tell her that she was a terrible person for being human, or would you tell her that WOW, you did an EXCEPTIONAL job and stop putting yourself under a microscope & examining your every word & movement!?

Nobody is every 'ready' for a loved one to pass. But your husband was ready to transition into the next phase of his eternal life. One with no pain, no suffering, no dirty diapers, no dementia.............just happiness and joy.

My mother is 94 next month and living with dementia in a Memory Care AL. I pray every day for God to come take her b/c she's miserable. To live in constant misery and pain is no life, let's face it. I know that she will be finally joyous and pain FREE once she transitions, so why not NOW?

The other thing that lots of people forget is that care giving is a two way street. It's not 100% about the sick person. It's also about the care giver. There are TWO people who's lives have been thrown upside down, yet all we tend to focus on is the 'sick' person. What about YOU? Who was there to comfort YOU? Who was there to help YOU? Who's shoulder did YOU cry on?

You've already been through enough pain and suffering, my friend. Now is the time to allow yourself to HEAL. You will always grieve the loss of your husband for the rest of your life, but that is something different. Allowing yourself to heal means that you choose to focus on all the beautiful memories you made together, before he got sick & before you became his full time care giver. Don't remember him sick; remember him healthy & vibrant & laughing. Remember the happy times and you will KNOW you're beginning to heal when you can do that.

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time, otherwise you choke. Take small bites every day and allow the sunshine and laughter back into your heart, because that's what your husband wants you to do now. Live the rest of your life happy and free from anger & self hatred. You deserve to.