Lonely

The loneliness is hitting again at the moment. I'm still on top of things which is good.

Got desperate and tried online dating sites. They are scary places.

The insomnia is back. Can't sleep at night. Exhausted all day.

Torn

I'm torn dear reader.  Sometimes I'm so lonely. I just want to climb into bed and snuggle someone close to me.

Other times I think maybe it's better that I remain single. It's less hassle and a lot less hurt. I'm over that kind of pain.

I don't know. I say that a lot don't I. But in this life it's been a lot of I simply don't know.

What a shit weekend

So, my steam account gets hacked, my router fries itself and one of my best mates dies.

Then I get friendzoned by my girlfriend.

Sheesh.


On the bright side the weather was good enough that I got some gardening in.




She left me.

My girlfriend has demoted me to friend status. We still talk but thats where it ends now. She has some medical issues and life in the way issues she needs to deal with.


The loneliness just became a whole lot bigger. I want to turn to social media for comfort of friends but I have already learnt that they don't want to be there for the bad times. only the good.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUC6sAXza_k




The new way to help people grieve

So, the new way to help people get over their partner dying is to fuck off and leave them to it. Then when they get sad and lonely they feel justified, they can go "see? He just needs space".


This world is fucked up and I'm not so sure if I want to be an active member in it any more. I need to win the lottery and disappear from it.


Its a strange new world. It's become a badge of honor, being alone. Where we are expected to connect using social media rather than actual contact. I wonder how long before people start to notice the relationship between this new alone phenomenon and the massive surge in suicide. Will we get used to being solitary creatures or will we figure it out? Probably the rates will continue to climb and people will shake their heads and just accept it.






A thought. Or an observation

The ones quickest to point out your psychological shortcomings tend to be the ones who are running from their own issues.

That should be a meme....... hmmmm

Bullies and suicide

It was a rough end of the day dear reader. My daughter who is homeschool and aspie went to a birthday party with regular schoolers. Any thoughts we had of her being ready for regular school have now been put to rest. They bullied her mercilessly. Poor thing when she got home was working hard to hold back the tears. This kid doesn't cry. Not even at her mother's funeral.
Amongst it she said something that made me hesitate. She said "I want to die". The amount of thoughts that can go through ones mind in a single moment can be huge some times. You see, I don't let this go outside of my head often but I want to die too.
I suffer from physical pain. I try not to show how bad it is. My back my shoulders my wrist my ankles and other places. Constant headaches. They hurt. I'm always in pain. Then theirs the crushing loneliness too. That sometimes hurts more than my physical pain. And the bills. So many bills. Taxes, mortgage, food, power it goes on and on.
I even know how I would do it. And where.
But I won't.  I made a promise to my wife as she lay dying. And for some stupid reason of honour I will keep that promise that I will look after and nurture our daughter as best as I can. 
I wish I could end it. End the pain. The loneliness and the fear.
I'm so alone right now, laying here in bed. The nights are the hardest.

How my Friday night feels.






*Sighs



Alone

Even Eeyore got visitors.

In the past month I have had exactly 0 evening visitors. Despite occasional invites I have made to people to dinner or watch a movie. Not. one. person. I even made it clear I was feeling alone. No one. Guess Edward is only wanted when hes useful for fixing a computer.


Cancer Survivors Guilt

So now we have people who actually did survive cancer all upset because they made it and others didn't. You people suck. You won. You survived, you get to carry on. Your guilt upsets me more than the ones who fought back and now carry on. You got a 2nd chance. Wallowing over that is a total insult to those who lost.

Piss off.

Is it really so much to ask?




Good guys lose.






Group for those who had lost a loved one to cancer.

So, it was suggested I sign up to a group of people who had lost a loved one to cancer. I did it. Nice people, and it was kind of nice to see they were all experiencing the same feelings of isolation and loneliness. But then it got too much. Relentless reminders of how lonely I feel right now. Reminders of how the nights are the worst. And of course they wanted to know my history.

Not such a good night tonight.


I got ranty on facebook

Then I forgot it was there. Fuck it it can stay. This is what I said....


 I see this stuff posted all over the place. Need help with Depression? Suicidal? Cancer? I'll be there claim the statuses. 
Bullshit. You reach out and there are so few there. 


Having issues? Feeling down? Put it out there and get called Eeyore (yes, it has happened). 

That's why there's so much suicide in this country,. everyone is told to "man up". Want counselling because your wife died? Sure. Here's 6 sessions. Make sure you are cured by then because that's all you qualify for. Oh, the hospital screwed up and killed your wife before her time? Sorry, here's another couple of sessions for free. 

Business going under because you are having trouble working due to grief? Use a credit card. There's no help for you. 

The only reason I am still here is because I promised my wife before she died I would look after our daughter.

too much

It all became too much today.

I saw a memory post on facebook, which I mentioned in the last post. And my day just fell down.


I'm so lonely. I thought I could do it alone. In time I guess I can. but today I couldn't I almost lost it in the supermarket. I made it out and sat in the car for 15mins getting over it. Grabbed the daughter on the way home and went to bed for a few hrs.


Days like this I wish there was help. But there isn't. So I break a bit more. When will the breaking stop?







Facebooks on this day and hindsight with 20/20 vision

So today on my on this day on facebook I can see on the feed a post about how my wife was doing 12 months ago. I now know that what I thought was menopause was in fact the infection that would kill her less than 2 months later was taking hold.

If only I had known then.

I failed my wife, right when we were starting to win.

I want someone to hold me right now. Tell me life is going to get better. But theres no one here. I'm alone. Paying for my failure.

Days like this I don't want to be here anymore.



And now comes up how people who survived cancer feel guilt. Seriously???? Survivors guilt? There's a fuck of a lot worse than survivors guilt.


I think I broke?

Today was an odd day.
I didn't realise it till later but I haven't been nearly as sad and lonely as usual.
Thinking about it right now. I'm not totally bothered that I'm alone. Sure, someone to share my world with would be nice but it's not all encompassing.
Today I had an odd thought while I was out weeding the garden. Sorry, it's about to get intamate. I can't remember how heavy my girlfriends breasts are. If I imagine sneaking up behind her and pretending to be her bra I simply can't remember their weight. Or what they look like. The synapses that store that info in my brain are simply closing down.
In a way that bothers me. But in another way I think it's good.  My brain appears to be moving on. Tonight I realised that I'm not even wondering if she will be back soon.  I'm simply not caring.
It's strange. I haven't felt this way in many many years. I'm still full of grief.  I think that is going to remain for dome time but I think I am moving on finally. 
I wonder if I'll still want her when she arrives back and I  see her. Weird.

What's new?

Been wondering what to write. Right now it's a bundle of same shit different day.

I'm starting to pull my emotions back in. Lock them away. It's taking some work.

I'm munching down a range of natural antidepressants. I think it's taking the edge off. I don't know. Sometimes I'm ok. Other times I'm falling to pieces.

Here's a conspiracy theory for you.

My wife was an admin on a tppa action board. And she was an alternative healer who was quite public.

A local dr here was also an admin on the same tppa action board and publicly into alterative healing.

Both died in circumstances that just aren't right. Something wrong about both their deaths. They were ruled terminal disease and accidental. I know that was not how it was in either of them.

So many alternative healers dying in strange ways.




Eeyore

Apparently my depression is wearing thin on others. I have been called Eeyore.

There goes the last person willing to listen to me.

Depression is isolating. Its isolation and loneliness. I don't need drugs. I need people to give a shit.

I asked for help from some of the others who I have helped in the past. Guess its not reciprocal.




Alone again. By Myself.


This Eeyore needs to relearn how to bury his emotions because no one wants to see them.




Help from others

So many people have asked me for help when they were down. Someone to talk to. Someone to be there for them. And I was. No matter how low or hurting I have been I have always been there for those people.

I'm showing them how low I am. Most are ignoring it.

All those shit status updates showing they will be there for people is bullshit. They will only be there if they need to do nothing more than update their facebook status.

NZ culture. This, People. This is why we have massive suicide rates in New Zealand. Because we don't have each others backs. We aren't there for others.


Hearts and Pimples

I have a pimple over my heart. It won't go away.

It tends to turn up in times of high stress and or depression.

My wife said it was my heart becoming toxic and trying to clear itself.

10 months

Well, 10 months and 2 days to be precise, since I lost my wife.

I just want company. I want someone special to hold, to love. To cherish. I want some one to care about, and someone who cares about me.

I want to go to bed at night and hug someone close before I drift off to sleep. I want to wake up in the morning and have someone there in bed with me.

I want to sit in a park and eat sausages on a warm sunny evening. I want to go to art galleries and museums and even antique stores.

I want to walk on the beach, and up mountains.

I want someone to hold me when it gets dark and show me there's light.



Day 3 of "manning up"

Well that was a fucking fail.


Depression level = Stressed out




When you are stressed from the depression and you can feel the Adrenalin trickling to your heart.

But Adrenalin to someone with CFS is like a poison. Pity its not a little more potent. All it will do is make it harder to work. Or function.

What does it matter? I'm no longer living. I exist. Nothing more.


Night time

I used to love evenings. Nice times. Nice company. And climbing into bed with someone. Bliss. Knowing you were going to wake up beside them too. More bliss.

Now. It's just empty.

Nights have turned into a horrible loneliness.

Gotta find a way to get this under control.


day 1 of manning up

It's hard to change your own mindset.

Keeps sucking me back. Reverting. I just have to keep pushing myself into the new mindset.

Stupid thing is I don't want to change. I want to be free to have emotions. I want to love. I want to need to love.

That won't happen. That time is gone. Its lost. It's over.

Why wasn't I flooding her with Vitamin C? Right from the moment that wound opened up. Pushing, pushing her to take it.

When do I dare say I feel like I didn't try hard enough to keep her alive.

Wrong emotions. Push it down. Lock it away.


Man up. Move on.

"man up"

To "man up". The art of putting your emotions away. Driving them down and locking them up. I used to be able to do that. Sure, the bruxism was a bit of an annoying side effect but it worked. I could carry on through massive stress. I was considered management material. When things were bad I would man up and deal with it.

Then I got sick. Real sick.

The irony of my illness is that stress makes me sick. And then I get stressed that I'm sick. And so I get sicker.

I had to learn to let the stress go. It was a combination of trying not to care about work and not letting people get to me. Followed through with allowing myself to have emotions.

The problem now is that with recent events the emotions are sucking me down. And I forgot how to turn them off.

How did I do it? How did I turn them off?




Pink Floyd.........
There must have been a door there in the wall, when I came in.




You are so strong. You are so brave. Rubbish.

People going on about oh you are so strong.  All that you do you are strong. And brave. No I'm  not. I had no choice.






I'm not a hero
I'm not a saviour.
Forget what you know.
I'm just a man who's circumstances went beyond his control.
-Styx.  Mr roboto.

Google, Ye are not helpful this time

Trying to find some natural pill to stop me from feeling. I just want to shut it all down for a few weeks. Go numb.

Nothing.

I want it to break

It's only been 4 days. I feel so alone.

How stupid is that?

I wish the part of me that needs company so much would break. Just go away.
I hate feeling like this.
I hate myself.
I hate it.
I hate what I have become.
I hate where my life has ended up.

I wish I could end it.
I want the feelings to stop. All of them.



And then there is the daughter.

Shes hard work. She won't go to bed. The arguments getting her to bed wear me out. Not as much as the arguments getting her out of bed in the mornings though.

I have tried over and over to explain it to her.

She won't listen.

I'm tired.

Mornings

That transition from resting in a nice warm bed to the starkness of reality. Someone purchased the book before I removed it from sale. I feel bad for them. I have given them an electronic version of the book so they can see what it should look like. I hope they are ok with that.


I hate living. I don't want to face the world.


Edit to say its not living. This isn't living. Right now I am existing. Not living.


My Bed. My refuge

My bed. The place I went when my wife was diagnosed with cancer.

The place I went when she died of cancer.

The place I find myself when it all gets too hard. Like today.

Its terrible. Part of me is screaming to get up and get moving. I need the work and the money.

The other part of me just can't do it some days.

I hate the depression.

I hate being so alone with my depression.

I hate myself.

I hate my life.

I hate what I am.

I hate what I have become.


The man in the moon

It was a full moon so I went out and told the man in the moon how tired I was and asked if I could rest yet. It's been hard on me this life of mine. Today I checked my wife's book by laser printing it.

When I saw it I pulled her book from amazon.

I'm tired.  I'm alone and I've run out of..... well..... I have run out of everything. There's nothing left.

All over the place

It was a great day. And a really hard day.


My Girlfriend hasn't got too far away yet, she was couple of hours north of here. So instead of going to work I ducked up to see her. It was a really nice day. But it was hard. We didn't really have much time and then suddenly it was over. She heads a lot further North tomorrow and I won't see her for some weeks. It's hurting me already.

My late wifes book was published too. It went live today.  It's finally finished. Yay! It was hard making it. Going through her work and her files. It hurt a lot, I have to admit there were some tears at times writing it.

Now the nerves. Will people like it? Will they buy it?

Meanwhile I have to work tomorrow. All the other things don't pay the bills. And there's a lot of those.


I think I will enjoy dying. Finally getting to rest. And no more bills.


Kia Kaha!

Kia Kaha! It's New Zealand maori for stand strong. It's something that's said a lot over here.
I loath those 2 words. Utterly loath them. Because when I hear them I hear "stand alone".
People who say Kia Kaha tend to be the ones who are not fighting along side you. But watching from a distance.

Doing my taxes

So, I was doing my taxes. I hate doing my taxes at the best of times.
I have to go through all my bank statements and check off what is business and what is personal when I come to the start of September.  There in my statement is my wife's last days. There's me buying lunch at the hospital. There's me stopping to get her some food as I took her to the hospice to die. There's the pizza I bought. And the ginger beer. Both were to be her last meal.
Sometimes the hurts are to be found in  unexpected places.  That was one of them. So here I am at 12:30pm. Awake and alone.
My mouth is flaring up again. I'm sick of living in constant pain.
Everyone thinks I'm doing ok. It's a lie. I'm not. I just had a shower. All I could think about in the shower was that I didn't dose Polli with enough vitamin c. And what would have happened if she had the right dressings when her breast fungated months before they used proper dressings.
Who knows. What ifs are pointless I know. Doesn't stop me thinking of them.
I feel broken and alone right now.

A new low

I'm running out of money.

This month I am raiding coins so I can pay the taxes.

There is not enough work and even if there was I couldn't cope working the hours.

Fuck knows.


Saddest moment ever

I was reading about loneliest moments on a random site.

I remembered mine.

After my wife died my birthday rolled around. My daughter is aspie and has a habit of not caring a lot. Others were avoiding me a lot.

I wound up sticking a candle in a cup cake and singing happy birthday to myself.

I remember a cake arriving a few days later. But my actual birthday this year was sad and pathetic.



One of those days

Ever have one of those days that's so bad its almost comedic.

I managed to be up early for a change. Which was good. There was a knock on the door about 8:30am

My new 2nd hand hot water cylinder has arrived!!!!

So my really cool installer guy who is doing it for free sets about installing it. Of course there's no water while its being done. I get back to my breakfast and answering my morning emails. I nip up the back for a quick play with the barky. He's finally learning that fetching is a good idea.

Then.... My stomach has a complain. Hmmm. ok. lets just see if its an in passing complain. Nope. Its not. Bugger. OK. Off to the toilet. theres enough for 1 flush..... The toilet was leaking a little. Oh well. Most of it flushed down. Take immodium. My stomach is sounding like the deck of an old sailing ship. There's a lot of creaking going on.

I nip around the corner to a friends place for a couple hrs till the creaking and the cramping stops.

Back home to find the cylinder replacement isn't going so well. Mainly the fact that the mains coming into the house has corroded and the bumping has made it split. Anyway, to cut a long story short there's a whacking great hole in the side of the house and I have no water.

Its late and its cold and I can't shower.


I'm sure I'll look back on all this one day and lauuuugh.



What to do?

Well here it is 1:30am. It's now the last day of May. One day I'll sleep a whole night.
This past month has not been the best. My depression has been winning a lot. This has been the hardest month out of the past 6 or so months. My income is so low I'll be dipping into the credit cards again. Oh well. I managed to keep out of them for the past 2 months so that's something. So why am I up at this hour?
It's woman troubles. I love my girlfriend. She's neat. She's intelligent, she's kind and she's funny. Pretty good looking to boot. The trouble is she's also often unavailable. It's not her fault dear reader. Please don't frown upon her. When we were first going out she was here 4 nights a week. Hey I would have liked more but I was cool with that much. But over time this has dropped down to where I'm getting 1 night sometimes 2 nights a week. She's got a property she's doing up and winter is coming and she's trying to get things sorted before winter really kicks in. (Southern hemisphere here.  Winter is a month away). But it's been hard on me. With loosing my drive over the hospital (you need to look back at my earlier posts for that) I really needed some company but she hasn't been available and now the thing I have also been trying to avoid thinking about is looming. She has some gypsy tendancies and has been needing to roam. She's going in 20 days and will not be back for a good 6 weeks or more.  I fear that dear reader may just break me. But convincing her not to go may just break her.
I'm in a difficult place. Normally I would place her needs above mine. It's why I have been ensuring she gets that time she needs at her place. It's an hour away from here.
But 6 weeks alone. Dear reader I don't know what to do. I'm not in a good state. I'm lost over this. She's lost over it too. How can I put my needs over hers? But how broken will I become?
What becomes of the broken hearted?

Do NOT tell your girlfriend about your dreams

So, my girlfriend asked me about my dream. She asked several times. So I showed her my previous post.

I'm sitting here thinking I may not have a girlfriend now. I don't know. So I have gone from not having enough to nothing.

I am a dick. A total dick.






How long before the loneliness goes away?

Last nights sleep wasn't the best.

I dreamed someone else wanted to be my girlfriend. I'm trying to tell her I already have one. But she doesn't want to listen. A part of me wanted to take the new one. My current girlfriend is an amazing person but I don't see her enough. She has good reasons. It's just how it has to be. The other one (someone I know) would be nowhere near as wonderful (in fact would annoy me a bit) but I would see her a lot. Then my girlfriend showed up and they had an argument. But they made me go into a different room while they argued.

Then I woke up and neither one was there. Or my wife. I felt crushing loneliness.  I just sat there for 2 hrs. Alone in my bed unable to sleep. Finally I got back to sleep and I dreamt of a water pipe and valve that was broken and couldn't be fixed. I didn't know what to do.
Next dream I went to a restaurant for lunch. I did the desert menu option but when I went to get the desserts they put them away just as I got there. I'm trying to explain that I paid for it and really wanted it. But they said no, I was too late.

Now I have to try and work while feeling like shit.


How long before I stop feeling so alone?


A little lie called Karma.

I know a lady. Shes such a nice, kind person. One of those people you like as soon as you meet them.
She had 2 sons and a loving husband. Had. What her and her husband didn't know until a bit later was that the 2 sons had Cystic Fibrosis. She had to watch her 2 sons slowly die. After the first son died and while the 2nd one was going down her husband killed himself. The same week she was diagnosed with cancer. Now she lives alone. This was a nice woman who did nice things. Wheres the Karma in that?

There's a group of 4 houses here in this city. All side by side. They were purchased when a man won the lottery so his family could all live close to each other. Sounds nice, and noble. This family are known by almost everyone in the city. They burgle houses. they steal, they cheat. They are often in prison. So tell me. With all that why would Karma give them that money? Oh, it didn't stop them from their ways in case you were wondering. They stayed the same.

My wife did good things, she was an adviser and confidant to so many people. She never asked for money. She did it out of kindness. She would stay up all night with someone who was down if it was needed. All the kindness and good karma in the world couldn't save her from a slow, horrible death.


But you see we need lies like Karma. And others, like Justice. We need to believe in them. Because if we don't then where does that leave us dear reader? In one hell of a quandary, that's where.

So why do good things if it doesn't matter in the scheme of things? Because why not? We are all in this life thing together so why not help others through it. Leave the horrible people to being horrible. Find and focus on the good ones. At least your corner will be that bit more bearable.




Ambivalence. Along with ups and downs.

ambivalence
amˈbɪv(ə)l(ə)ns,amˈbɪvəl(ə)ns,amˈbɪvələns/
noun
  1. the state of having mixed feelings or contradictory ideas about something or someone.


So dear reader. I am going to impart something to you that I haven't mentioned to many people. My girlfriend was diagnosed some months ago in the early stages of cervical cancer. All around me is cancer. Cancer and death, but that's a subject for a later post. Now here's some good news. After some time of nervous waiting she got a letter today. Shes clear of cancer! It's gone. She took note of my studies and applied the protocols and treatments I used on my wife and it worked. Elation, and the end of a nervous time. Coupled with sadness. It does work. Yet another reminder I was so close to saving my wife. 

Then a call from the health and disability advocate. She tells me I have had a positive effect on parts of the hospital and people are being treated with more compassion. Some (not all, but some) of the doctors are treating patients better. 
But there nothing more I can do and there's nothing I will ever gain from it. My life. Spent in service of others with nothing to show for it.

It also leaves me a bit down having to drag all that stuff up again. 


Then the kicker for the night. Someone who I thought was a caring person rounded on me and totally belittled my views on Doctors. She knew what had happened. She was a friend of my wife's. I removed my comments from her facebook page and went back to see her crowing about me doing that. 

For some reason that hurt a lot. I'm trying to ignore it. And normally I'm ok. I'm used to ridicule. But tonight I can't shake it. Guess the events of the day amplified it. 


Its been a hard month

Its been a hard month dear reader. Coping is hard. So hard. When my Polli was dying I put the last of my energy into her instead of working. I was so drained but I kept going. Its amazing how even at the lowest point you can keep dragging yourself up for a bit. I remember going up to the hospital to see her one day and I'm standing there feeling an earthquake. But I look around the room and no one is looking worried. Guess it was just me. Low times then too. The blood noses I was getting too. Not good.

Well, back to this month. After Polli died I had a driver, a purpose. Take on the hospital. It kept me going. It was my goal. I lost. Little old me trying to take on the might of the hospital. I gave it everything. I ripped my psyche to pieces at times. But they got me. It came down to my medical opinion against a Doctors medical opinion. Hes lying, but theres no proof.

So there it was. My reason for keeping on. My reason to get back up to fight. POOF! Gone.

Again, Sharon O'Neils song Maxine

Maxine
You're not the only one
To take the whole world on
No ones ever won.

Its so hard reader. I can't hold down full time work. It's not there to be had anyway. My business is barely moving. Sometimes I can only manage a few hrs a day. Other times I can't even do that. I'm hiding it from everyone. They don't notice how bad it is. Some suspect. My credit cards are going to run out soon. I don't know what comes after that.

And then there's my daughter. I hoped. I wished, she would step up and help after her mother died. But shes so selfish. She just won't help. Before you say to yourself that its a reaction to her mothers death she was like this before she got sick. I just hoped she would change.  She won't go to sleep until late and then won't get up in the morning. Sometimes I cant get her out the door till 10 or even 11am. Shes 10 and home schooled so goes to careers. And she just won't help with housework. I've tried it all. Being nice, asking, begging, screaming and yelling. Nothing. I want us to get along. But she won't help. I want help. I'm so tired and so low. Just a bit of help doing housework. Not everything. Just a bit.

I want to drink a lot tonight but I'm all out of alcohol. Apart from some stuff I'm allergic to. I'm tempted to drink it anyways.

I'm so low. I get the cutters now. I want to feel a blade slicing across my skin. Feel the reality of the pain.

I hear some antidepressants turn you into an unfeeling zombie. I'm tempted there too. Not feeling anything. That would be bliss compared to the pain I feel now.


The good guys always win..... In the movies

So my daughter is watching a movie and its hitting the obligatory thrilling end. She says "it's ok, the good guys always win"

It reminded me of when Terry Pratchett explained in the Hogfather that We need our children to believe in the little lies, like the tooth fairy and Santa. That way when they grow up they can believe in the bigger lies like justice and mercy. We need to believe to make life more bearable.

I felt so sorry for her. One day shes going to figure out that its all a lie. All of it.

2 days ago I watched a woman scam thousands of people (over 5,000 according to the facebook page) out of money, presents and other gifts by accusing a school of allowing her child to be mercilessly bullied. This same woman has been lying and scamming people for years. She has left a trail of saddened, disillusioned people in her wake. Despite those people standing up and warning people she still received an unknown sum of money and presents, people showed up and did things for her child for free. The school meanwhile is in the middle of the situation. Unable to speak out to maintain privacy of the child.

7 months ago my wife died. She was healing from her cancer but the hospital decided she was dying. They refused to look at the evidence. All they had to do was keep her going. Just for a while longer. Her body would have taken over the healing process. She just needed them to help her for another 2 months. The Drs get to go home to their lives, their families, believing they did their jobs. I'm left here alone. Looking after my daughter. I'm coping. But not all that well right now. I hope the sadness will end one day.




The Day before Mothers Day

So, I planned 2 big events a year for my wife. Her birthday and the day before mothers day. Why the day before? because then it was about her and no other mothers (think parents etc). Anyways this year she wasn't there. I distracted myself intentionally by taking my girlfriend out for the day. It wasn't the big crazy day I usually did but it was a really nice distraction. For anyone grieving for your loved one. Please, on the big days try and distract yourself or you are gonna do it hard.