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So sorry to read this news TJ.
Sorry for your loss. It sounds like you did everything in your power to ease her passing, well done.
Take care.
Don’t know what to say. Sounds as though you made the best of an awful situation, but that doesn’t make it any less awful.
So sorry to hear that TJ.
Really sorry to hear this TJ, I'm sorry for your loss and my thoughts are with you at this time.
Very sorry to read this, my condolences for your loss.
FWIW. My sincere condolences TJ it seems from your posts that you and Julie spent time together and loved each other. No mean feat after all that time.
I hope you can take some comfort on that over the coming weeks/months.
Thoughts with you and yours.
The emptiness must feel unbearable Jeremy. Take very good care of yourself. Let those close to you support you.
So very sorry to hear that tj, many many condolences. At least the last few weeks were ones you were able to share together.
Oh and if there's anything those of us in Edinburgh can do, even if it's just company on a bike ride, you know you only have to say.
Very sorry for your loss mate.
How sad, very sorry for your loss TJ.
So sorry TJ.
You know where we all are if you need anything.
My deepest condolences, Jeremy.
It seems like only yesterday that we all chummed each other along on that Ardnamurchan ride, and doing our best to sort that tandem puncture you had somewhere in the middle of nowhere.
Sincere condolences and sympathy TJ
Really sad to hear this Jeremy, please try and take care of yourself.
Moderator hugs and sincere kind thoughts TJ. You gave her the ending she wanted and the empathy she deserved.
I'm so sorry to hear this TJ. Condolences and thoughts from me at this time.
Sorry for your loss.
Be kind to yourself. x
So sorry TJ. Take your time to get things right for you.
So sorry for your loss TJ , I hope that the knowledge you were able to spend her last days at home can be of comfort to you. If you need anything at all just let us know. Love to you and your family.
So sorry for your loss TJ you have my sincere condolences. Take care of yourself.
Well done both of you. Julie for having the courage to do it like that and you for having broad enough shoulders to allow it to happen. My sincerest commiserations, thinking of you.
From some of your recent posts it seemed like something big was happening to you TJ. I hoped it wasn't something awful but it turns out it was.
So sorry to hear the news. Look after yourself.
So sorry to hear this. I'm sure you've been a great support to her through this tough time. Hope you have some good friends and family to support you now. All the best, Tom.
Sorry for your loss TJ, deepest condolences.
Big hug TJ, condolences #****cancer
Very sorry to read this TJ. 😞 condolences
So sorry to hear thus TJ.
Very sorry for your loss TJ, take care and treasure the memories.
Peace and love brother.
So very sorry to hear this, TJ.
Desperately sad news TJ, so sorry to hear this. I know I've posted this before, and I think you may have even acknowledged these words in the past. Not trying to be trite, just words that have helped me and others I know in the past:
I wish I could say you get used to people dying. I never have. I don't want to. It tears a hole through me whenever somebody I love dies, no matter the circumstances. But I don't want it to "not matter". I don't want it to be something that just passes. My scars are a testament to the love and the relationship that I had for and with that person. And if the scar is deep, so was the love. So be it. Scars are a testament to life. Scars are a testament that I can love deeply and live deeply and be cut, or even gouged, and that I can heal and continue to live and continue to love. And the scar tissue is stronger than the original flesh ever was. Scars are a testament to life. Scars are only ugly to people who can't see.
As for grief, you'll find it comes in waves. When the ship is first wrecked, you're drowning, with wreckage all around you. Everything floating around you reminds you of the beauty and the magnificence of the ship that was, and is no more. And all you can do is float. You find some piece of the wreckage and you hang on for a while. Maybe it's some physical thing. Maybe it's a happy memory or a photograph. Maybe it's a person who is also floating. For a while, all you can do is float. Stay alive.
In the beginning, the waves are 100 feet tall and crash over you without mercy. They come 10 seconds apart and don't even give you time to catch your breath. All you can do is hang on and float. After a while, maybe weeks, maybe months, you'll find the waves are still 100 feet tall, but they come further apart. When they come, they still crash all over you and wipe you out. But in between, you can breathe, you can function. You never know what's going to trigger the grief. It might be a song, a picture, a place, the smell of a cup of coffee. It can be just about anything...and the wave comes crashing. But in between waves, there is life. Somewhere down the line, and it's different for everybody, you find that the waves are only 80 feet tall. Or 50 feet tall. And while they still come, they come further apart. You can see them coming. An anniversary, a birthday, or Christmas, or landing at Heathrow. You can see it coming, for the most part, and prepare yourself. And when it washes over you, you know that somehow you will, again, come out the other side. Soaking wet, sputtering, still hanging on to some tiny piece of the wreckage, but you'll come out.
Take it from an old guy. The waves never stop coming, and somehow you don't really want them to. But you learn that you'll survive them. And other waves will come. And you'll survive them too. If you're lucky, you'll have lots of scars from lots of loves. And lots of shipwrecks.
Sorry for your loss TJ.
TJ, I am rubbish at expressing feelings and sympathy, whatever I say seems so shallow. I'll do my best though. I'll go out into the garden, look out at the hills and appreciate what we've got and be thankful for it.
If there is anything I can do to somehow help, however small let me know.
Ambrose
Shit, fella....
So sorry for your loss TJ.
Sorry to hear this TJ 😥
Sorry for your loss tj.
So sorry to hear that TJ, sending hugs
I’m incredibly gutted for you. It seems like you shared a lot in your years together. You are in my thoughts TJ.
Ta guys. enough already. You will make me cry!
this place has been a useful bit of normality for me over the last few weeks. I needed that.
I want to say a little more about the decisions we took and why. I think this might worth saying.
I am an experienced palliative care nurse. Its not what I have always done but I have done a lot and enjoyed it and was good. Julie worked for McMillan although not in a medical capacity. We knew what was going on and were generally only waiting for doctors to confirm what we knew.
We reach a point ( Julie was already in hospital at this point having had a blood clot) where the treatment is palliative chemo only with low likelihood of success. Julies choice at that point is that she wanted to go home in some way. I wanted to do her care. She however insisted that I promised her to stay inside the law as a precondition of her letting me do this. We have both been stanch advocates of euthanasia. She knew damn well i would be tempted at some point. She also told me. "Don't let me linger" she knew 3 weeks without food, 3 days without water. Thats roughly how long a human body lasts. We also knew she only had a few weeks no matter what- less than that where she will want to interact with people
well thanks for that tightrope to walk love!
We got her home and she managed to see all her dear friends and spend quality time. She was on a syringe driver containing ever increasing doses of opiates. finally she runs out of energy to do anything. at this point surely the big pill is appropriate? But remember my promise?
At every stage julie took the decisions. When she started to get scared some nice benzos were added into the mix. She floated away for most of her last week. she got the very best of care from lovely new top quality bed linen to feet rubbed with e45 every night
Our friends rallied round in a fabulous way. fresh home cooked meals delivered every night. anything we wanted was there just for asking. we tried to think of the most ridiculous thing we could ask for - a Llama? turns out a friend knew someone with a field full and one nearly turned up!
Iona and my friends gave me the space to ensure Julie had the best death our laws allow. we succeeded in that. I kissed her good night. she smiled. I settled down to sleep to wake for her last breaths
She died a peaceful dignified death with her loved ones around her and at the end thats as good as any of us can ask for
i have good memories of this last month. That will nelp me heal
I think you were lucky to have Julie, and she was lucky to have you.
I'd like to come and give you a hug.
Next question- what new bike with her money?
Never met you TJ but felt I should pass on my condolences.
Despite what has been taken from you so young, you are obviously blessed with good people and the luck of having had a wonderful life partner, and an understanding of palliative care to really make her final moments meaningful.
Hope that’s of some consolation as you grieve.
Oh man, goosebumps reading your post. (Not the bike one 😀). Only echo my message on fb, I’m so sorry, and I can only hope that I’d go with someone like you seeing me out or that I could do the same as you have done for someone else. Fair dues. I’m full of admiration for how you guys handled it all.
Really sorry to hear this TJ
However, this is brilliant:
Iona and my friends gave me the space to ensure Julie had the best death our laws allow. we succeeded in that. I kissed her good night. she smiled. I settled down to sleep to wake for her last breaths
She died a peaceful dignified death with her loved ones around her and at the end thats as good as any of us can ask for
i have good memories of this last month. That will nelp me heal
Wish we could all go that way - just when we're ready rather than when shit happens