Diary of a Grieving Husband follows therapist Conal Healy‘s recovery after the death of his wife, Anna.
Anna and Conal: Who are these people?
Anna was born in 1959. Conal was born in 1960. Both were born in Dublin, Ireland.
They met and fell in love in 1978, Anna and Conal were both teenagers, still at secondary school.
By 1980, they were both working. They were married in Ireland in 1984.
In 1987, a crippling recession in Ireland forced Anna and Conal to follow the Irish Migrant Road to London, England, to work … and a enjoy a better life.
It was while the couple were living in London their visas to emigrate to Australia were approved.
In 1988 they left their families behind to go to Australia. Their plan?
Have an adventure. Spend three years Down Under – work, travel, explore and have fun. Then return to Europe to start a family. They didn’t realise Australia would be their homes for the next few decades.
In 1989, they had their first child, a girl, in Ipswich, Queensland, Australia.
A second, a boy, followed in 1998, in Tweed Head, NSW, Australia.
In 2014, Anna was diagnosed with lung cancer. She did chemo and radiotherapy and went into remission in October that year.
In 2015, a tumor was removed from her breast, again she was successfully treated.
What nobody realized was two inoperable brain cancers were forming in Anna’s brain, this was towards the end 2015.
The growths would be discovered in late January 2016. Anna died six months later.
“And I’d like to thank…”
There is a small cast of people who appear in this blog but have not been named to protect their identity:
My Daughter: Our grown-up daughter who supported Anna and myself in the years leading up to her mother’s death, and was a stalwart as my grief journey started.
My Son: Our teenage son who who supported Anna and myself in the years leading up to her mother’s death and had to deal with the death of his mother while he studied for his Higher School Certificate.
Dr K: Doctor K has been my GP since August 2016. She has looked after my physical and mental health. She has treated me for anxiety, depression, a malfunctioning thyroid gland and grief. (“Conal, if you were any more depressed …I would have hospitalised you” said Dr K in 2021.)
My Male Psychologist: Dr S had been diagnosed me as suffering from PTSD (in 2013) and counselled me in the initial months of my grief journey.
My Female Psychologist: Dr L treated me for a major depression episode, and was instrumental in helping me navigate the early grief journey.
NB: There are a cast of (unnamed) people who helped me during this horrible part of my life. They checked in on me a weekly basis, they invited out for meals – even when I wasn’t good company – they phoned me, sent emails/text messages. I know grief and loss is a path you walk alone, but it was great to have other people who were their to support me and help me through the rockier (and muddier) parts of the track. Thank you.
