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Losing both of my parents

User Profile: BlueWombat
BlueWombat July 19th, 2025

I don't know if it's okay to make a post like this? I've never made a thread before... But I'm struggling at the moment and I have very few people I can talk to about things. I just really need to vent.

So I lost both my parents a year apart. In completely unrelated circumstances. My dad passed from lung cancer just over a month after he was diagnosed, and it was devastating. I was with him when he died... It was the most traumatic day of my life. So far.

Every day I think about how things might have been different if I'd visited him more. Maybe then I would have noticed his horrific and dramatic weight loss. I would have realised the extent of his extreme back pain that he would downplay any time it came up. I could have pushed him to go to a hospital, where they would have seen that it was being caused by the massive tumour on his lung pressing against the nerves in his spine.

I lived two roads away from him.

Two.

And I hadn't seen him in months.

About a year after that and I get a knock on my door. My mum has died. I'm told it was peaceful, that she was probably sleeping when her high blood pressure caused the fatal bleed in her brain. But it doesn't feel real. I didn't see it like I did with my dad. And I never saw her again, she was just... Gone.

I was going to ring her earlier that day but it slipped my mind. I just forgot. But what if I had? Would she have been able to tell me that she was feeling unwell? Would I have noticed that she seemed off? Would there have been time to save her?

I remember a conversation I'd had a couple of days prior, with her best friend who she lived with. My mum had seemed confused, slurring her words and not being able to focus. Her friend made an assumption at that time, that she had likely mistakenly taken two of the very strong painkillers she was on instead of one, and I believed it. She slept it off and when I called her the next day she seemed fine again. That would be the last time I ever spoke to her.

I hate that her friend suggested that. I hate that I didn't push it further because it was a 'good enough' reason for me. I don't blame her, but it's something my brain won't let go of, no matter how hard I try.

Every day I fight with the guilt, the vivid mental replays, the 'what ifs'. It just never stops. It's been almost 3 years since I lost my dad, and almost 2 years since I lost my mum, but I feel like I'm frozen in time. Doomed to relive it in my head every day until the day I join them.

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User Profile: Tinywhisper11
Tinywhisper11 July 19th, 2025

@BlueWombat I'm so sorry sweetie 😥 grieving is one of the hardest things in the world😥 and the what ifs? And should have done's? Feels like a curse we have to live with 🙁 no-one is ever prepared for the loss of a loved one, and in time I hope most of your focus shifts to the good memories with them💖 and I hope you take comfort with knowing they are in heaven now, and you will all get to meet again oneday💖💖 hugs you tightly 💖 right here for you 💗

2 replies
User Profile: BlueWombat
BlueWombat OP July 19th, 2025

Thank you so much for your kind words. You have no idea how much they mean to me right now. 💜

1 reply
User Profile: Tinywhisper11
Tinywhisper11 July 20th, 2025

@BlueWombat sits beside you and wipes away your tears 💖 I'm here if you need to talk 💖

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User Profile: Amanda84
Amanda84 July 20th, 2025

@BlueWombat

That's heartbreaking and I'm so sorry for your loss. Its the what ifs that haunt us the most, but you couldn't have done anything and I have no doubt in the world  that both of your parents loved you and you brought them much joy in their lives. Hold onto the good memories, they are both looking down on you everyday with pride, if their deaths shows us anything , it's the unexpectedness of life and ti fully embrace all it has to offer us 💕💜

1 reply
User Profile: BlueWombat
BlueWombat OP July 20th, 2025

Thank you Amanda, I really appreciate you saying that. 💜

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