Thank you griefline for your support in person and online

My 16 year old furbaby died last Saturday of old age. I knew it was coming and had been dreading it for months. He was well loved all that time and he went within a week at the end. Knowing it was coming didn’t help. I was distraught the week I knew he was going and have been since. I’m a 51 year old woman with a history of depression and am going though menopause, so knew when he went I’d be very vulnerable emotionally. I also have no partner or family apart from his beautiful 3 year old sister cat who has been giving me lots of affection 🙂 But basically means he was my family and I have no-one to talk to or lean on in my personal life. That said, work have been supportive and have given me time off to deal with it, as they know how much he meant to me. I spoke to my GP on Monday who is aware of my mental health issues/concerns and let me know it was OK just to go through grieving. I think I needed the validation that my grief was ‘normal’ and not something darker. On Wednesday I couldn’t sleep and kept crying (something I was giving myself permission to do) but at 3am in the morning I needed to talk to someone so I called lifeline. They listened and gave me the number for griefline who I rang and spoke to a counsellor yesterday. They listened and it really helped. Which I think from the reading I have done today, was again what I needed, without knowing it when I spoke to my GP. I needed to express my pain and know it was heard. I was awake at 3am again this morning (insomnia is part of grief I have read), but instead of lying with it I got up and read through many of the articles on this website and listened to the podcasts. Thank you so very much griefline for having this resource available. It’s given me tools to help myself and validated my thoughts, emotions and physical grief processes. I am choosing to believe this is my furbabies parting gift to me. A need to find a way to honour him while letting go and finding ways for me to move forward.