How do you deal with the death of your parents?

My GF has lost both hers. All I can say is it hit her real hard. Her dad died last spring and she's nowhere near getting over it.

Lost my Dad to lung cancer July 11, 2011 (exactly 1 month before his 60th birthday)

So many surreal moments from the time I got the phone call until the time we got home from the funeral. Also a lot of moments and days in there I don't even remember. Some of it was a blur and some of it is ingrained in great detail in my mind.

Wake and funeral are the easiest. It's going back to work, trying to sleep on that first night after they're buried...you realize that your world has taken a huge hit, but the world itself doesn't notice and life goes on.

You'll find yourself getting emotional when you least expect it and not being emotional at all when you think you should. I personally will never get over the loss of my dad (my best friend and mentor), but I cope with it better and better every day that life goes on. And maybe....hopefully, I can be half the man, father and person he was someday.

You just have to accept the fact that they're gone. There will be bad day, and there will be good days. At times something will happen, you'll laugh and remember them and it'll make your day.

I never really gave them much shite. My dad (retired) will call me every day and wanna sit on the phone for 45 minutes telling me exactly what happened from the time he woke up till whenever without me letting a word in. It gets old, but I'm smart enough to know one day when he's gone I'm gonna be wishing 'pops' is lighting up on my phone as an incoming call. My mom health wise is worse off than him. If she happens to go first. My mind can't even fathom the pain he will feel.

i make a point to tell my parents I love them every time I leave...whether on the phone or in person.

...wish I spent more time with them than I do.

don't know how I will be able to deal with losing them one day

Yeah we end every conversation with "ILY". It scares me to think about my grandmother dying, much less my parents. I'm the first grandchild and to this day mawmaws admits I'm her favorite. Luckily she's healthy but thinking about any of them going saddens me.

(no message)

Time helps plus knowing how badly he was suffering in the months leading up to his death and knowing he had no quality of life.

It's more than a test. It's a whole new chapter in your life. Things that bring comfort also bring pain, till they sorta become one in the same. And that's called learning to live with it, one day at a time the best you can.

Things that you took for granted you'd give anything to just to have a few moments of that again. Memories become personal treasures, and with that, what seems as painful reminders can become pillars of strength.

This day is coming for me, honestly I have no clue how I will deal with it.