Like you, I too have been caring for a family member who recently passed away. After my husband died, I went to live with my sister-in-law and have been helping to care for my mother-in-law and brother-in-law. Recently my brother-in-law died and his death really taught me a lot about life.
As I think back on my relationship with my husband, I realize that as sad as I am that he passed away, I realize that his death has given me an opportunity to live. I'll be writing about that on substack a lot more as I explore it further for myself.
Oh I’m so sorry for both of your losses, Andrea! I’m glad you’re talking about the other side that can exist when losing someone. It’s usually just the unbearable sadness, but even while you’re going through that, what comes after? How do we keep going eventually? It seems no one talks about the “after.”
Excited to see what you write on, when we have to start over with a new chapter of life ♥️
I'm so moved by your response. I'm very eager to share more about how to start over a new chapter in life. But I am having the toughest time getting my Substack set up. I want to set up multiple publications.
Oh no! The frustrations of navigating the online space! Ugh I'm sorry.
Okay, so Substack has their own Substack (which is where Office Hours is hosted!) and they tend to share update posts here when they have new features. That's one way.
There's also help articles you can find (I'm sure here ON Substack but what I end up going is going to a search engine like Google and typing in, "Substack _____(insert inquiry here)" and one of their help articles come up.
(Hopefully it's clickable!) Essentially, if you click the three horizontal lines next to your profile picture in the upper righthand corner on desktop, you then click "writer's dashboard", and then at the top of *that* page click "settings", and somewhere if you really look and scroll down you'll see something like "add publication" and you can do it from there!
The only thing with creating multiple publications is that only one can be shown next to your name, be linked I think in Notes when people mention you, etc. But it's the easiest way to switch between multiple accounts without creating a new account entirely and logging in and out. A bit of a bother!
What an incredibly beautiful piece, Cierra <3 I loved every single line. The part about waiting to dig into your meals because you might be called was so real and I can only imagine all the little moments that changed when your mom passed. It is so beautiful to know that you had a full and life-giving first year and I love that you are comforted by visits from mom and Grandpa too. Letting you known that you're so loved, so supported, so celebrated. Cheering you on! Happy Belated Birthday!!
I smiled at Happy Belated Birthday :) Thank you so so much, Jenna! I was literally JUST thinking about the meal thing last night. How I'd just sit for a good 10 minutes making sure no one needed me before I dug in cause I didn't like running around and picking at my food haha. Just felt so strange!
And the visits were comforting! It makes the afterlife feel even more mystical and unknown and I dunno if that's odd, but for me it makes it more inviting. Especially when both my mom and grandpa talked about going home at some point. Even hospice had in their pamphlet that they may say they "want to go home" even if they're in their physical home.
It feels like they're ready for the next adventure. They're ready to find a new home and I personally think that's beautiful.
Again, thank you SO much for reading! Love and appreciate you!
Thank you for all of that, Nadia! Couldn't agree more with everything you said. :) I'm so so glad we're both free now; I'm learning SO much!
Like you, I too have been caring for a family member who recently passed away. After my husband died, I went to live with my sister-in-law and have been helping to care for my mother-in-law and brother-in-law. Recently my brother-in-law died and his death really taught me a lot about life.
As I think back on my relationship with my husband, I realize that as sad as I am that he passed away, I realize that his death has given me an opportunity to live. I'll be writing about that on substack a lot more as I explore it further for myself.
Oh I’m so sorry for both of your losses, Andrea! I’m glad you’re talking about the other side that can exist when losing someone. It’s usually just the unbearable sadness, but even while you’re going through that, what comes after? How do we keep going eventually? It seems no one talks about the “after.”
Excited to see what you write on, when we have to start over with a new chapter of life ♥️
I'm so moved by your response. I'm very eager to share more about how to start over a new chapter in life. But I am having the toughest time getting my Substack set up. I want to set up multiple publications.
What did you use to learn about Substack?
Oh no! The frustrations of navigating the online space! Ugh I'm sorry.
Okay, so Substack has their own Substack (which is where Office Hours is hosted!) and they tend to share update posts here when they have new features. That's one way.
There's also help articles you can find (I'm sure here ON Substack but what I end up going is going to a search engine like Google and typing in, "Substack _____(insert inquiry here)" and one of their help articles come up.
Here's one I found by Googling on how to set up multiple publications: https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/360037824371-Can-I-create-multiple-publications-under-the-same-account-#:~:text=1.,of%20creating%20a%20new%20publication.
(Hopefully it's clickable!) Essentially, if you click the three horizontal lines next to your profile picture in the upper righthand corner on desktop, you then click "writer's dashboard", and then at the top of *that* page click "settings", and somewhere if you really look and scroll down you'll see something like "add publication" and you can do it from there!
The only thing with creating multiple publications is that only one can be shown next to your name, be linked I think in Notes when people mention you, etc. But it's the easiest way to switch between multiple accounts without creating a new account entirely and logging in and out. A bit of a bother!
What an incredibly beautiful piece, Cierra <3 I loved every single line. The part about waiting to dig into your meals because you might be called was so real and I can only imagine all the little moments that changed when your mom passed. It is so beautiful to know that you had a full and life-giving first year and I love that you are comforted by visits from mom and Grandpa too. Letting you known that you're so loved, so supported, so celebrated. Cheering you on! Happy Belated Birthday!!
I smiled at Happy Belated Birthday :) Thank you so so much, Jenna! I was literally JUST thinking about the meal thing last night. How I'd just sit for a good 10 minutes making sure no one needed me before I dug in cause I didn't like running around and picking at my food haha. Just felt so strange!
And the visits were comforting! It makes the afterlife feel even more mystical and unknown and I dunno if that's odd, but for me it makes it more inviting. Especially when both my mom and grandpa talked about going home at some point. Even hospice had in their pamphlet that they may say they "want to go home" even if they're in their physical home.
It feels like they're ready for the next adventure. They're ready to find a new home and I personally think that's beautiful.
Again, thank you SO much for reading! Love and appreciate you!