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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To be absolutely devastated/disgusted by this?

235 replies

fulltimeworkingmotherof4 · 13/02/2018 17:52

My little sister died 8 months ago. She was 33. I’ve posted before about her DH moving on quickly, but I’ve just found out he’s having a baby with his new gf, they’ve been together 6 months and she’s 2 months pregnant. It was announced on social media and of course me and my family were blocked from seeing it but word soon gets around.
I’m still massively struggling with loosing her, even tho she suffered from a long term illness. I never expected him to be on his own forever but I feel this takes the piss. AIBU to not be impressed?
He’s totally cut our family out of his life including my DN (my sisters son) he’s not his bio dad but was a big part of his life. He’s 10 and has all our love, lives with his bio dad but how can you just do that? When she died he said he’d still see him etc but literally nothing. He was on dating sites 2 weeks after her funeral. I’m just so angry 😡

OP posts:
Cocolepew · 14/02/2018 14:30

I know a woman who died from cancer whose neighbour moved into her house on the day of the funeral , leaving her own husband and children.
Neither her or the deceasrd husband saw anything wrong with this.
My uncle started to see a neighbour a few days after my aunt died. The neighbour used to be in the house all the time "helping'. They insisted they hadn't been having an affair as my aunt lay dying upstairs. My cousin no longer speaks to his dad.

malificent7 · 14/02/2018 14:57

All this going on supposed lived ones are dying....gross.

malificent7 · 14/02/2018 14:58

loved ones even!

waxmytash · 14/02/2018 15:47

So sorry for your loss OP.
It is often said that those who have the happiest and most loving relationships move on the quickest after the death of a partner - it doesn't mean for one moment that they have forgotten someone its just that they know what its like to love and be loved and they miss that.
My parents were married for 50 years ,it was a very happy marriage and they were still very much in love when my DF suddenly died at 71 (was very fit and active)
Six months after his death my DM (aged 70) 'moved on' & started internet dating - she explained it by saying 'I have been fortunate enough to have had 50 happy years with the most amazing man who was a wonderful husband,father and friend and although no one will ever replace him it would be lovely to meet a nice man'

After much hilarity at her internet dating stories she met a lovely bloke who man her final years very happy.

She was one wise lady.

expatinscotland · 14/02/2018 16:19

'It is often said that those who have the happiest and most loving relationships move on the quickest after the death of a partner'

By whom? I think problems can result when there are particularly young children involved, or children at home, IME.

My most intense experience of bereavement comes not from losing a spouse but my child. Even in the early days of that loss, I was, being an adult, acutely aware that this bereavement was different for her two surviving siblings, and still am so. And I do temper my behaviour to account for that fact, and have also sought out as much support as I came for them in their bereavement and loss. Because being a child and a child at home leaves them with far fewer options than I have and far less capacity as they are not neurologically developed to adulthood.

As a result I have had to swallow down and suck up a lot, but hey, that's part of being an adult and being a parent. It's realising that your own feelings, your happiness, etc do not exist in a vacuum and that your own actions have serious effect on other people, particularly young ones who do not have as much capacity as I do and far fewer options.

One thing really stuck with me. We house sat for a very dear friend about a year after our daughter died, and this friend's lovely carer came to visit and, being qualified in childcare and working on a child-related degree, offered to babysit for us and allow us time alone as a couple. But she also told me of how her own father had been killed in a RTA when she was 11, and how much support she needed and thankfully got, as her grief was much different from her mother's, understandably.

And again from my friend, as her mother moved on very quickly, marrying another man months after her father died and blending the families immediately, had an absolutely detrimental affect on her and on her relationship with her mother, which has never been repaired. Now my friend is a mother herself, I saw her last Summer. I did ask her about her bereavement of her father, and her relationship with her mother, as she invited me to. We are both now in our late 40s. She explained, that even now, she feels her mother was terribly selfish to have done what she did, as she had no space to grieve her father's death, she was too young to go anywhere, she was trapped in a blended family and told she was selfish for begrudging her mother happiness after her father's death. But as she explained, 'What on Earth was I supposed to feel?! I was THIRTEEN!' She is now the mother of a teenage girl herself and says she cannot imagine doing such a thing to her own child, no matter what the cost to her personal happiness. 'You have to put your kids first, don't you? At least while they're at home, surely? They don't have anywhere to go. It's not like they can tell you to fuck off and go out and get a job, can they? It's all well and good saying well they're dead, not coming back, life moves on, but it moved on too quickly for me. I was not given space to even register that my father was dead until I was told to accept Jack and his three kids.'

It didn't end well for her or her siblings. Their mother was an inherently selfish person who put her personal need to not be single and have a partner before their own need to grieve for their father.

Butterymuffin · 14/02/2018 16:27

This whole 'people with good marriages move on more easily' logic seems very debatable to me. It suggests that they value being married/partnered to someone, rather than to a specific individual that they love for their own qualities, habits, characteristics. The 'replacement' process seems somewhat impersonal. And where people have talked about the 'replacement' being next door neighbours, deceased wife's friend etc, it does seem like a matter of convenience. BTW if people are free to make these decisions, fair enough, but I'm also free to judge if I want. Works both ways.

wowfudge · 14/02/2018 16:49

Grieving is very personal. When someone is diagnosed with a terminal illness I have heard it said that those close to them start grieving at that point. My own gran married again a year after her husband died - he spent the last few years of his life in hospital. She and her children were shunned by her first husband's family. I think the way the children were treated was worse than my gran remarrying after a relatively short time.

speakout · 14/02/2018 16:52

Horribly judgemental thread.

VivienScott · 14/02/2018 16:55

I’m sorry for your loss. All I can say is that rebound happens after a death as much as a break up. My ex-FIL remarried on ex-MIL’s birthday, less than a year after her death, people do strange things in times like that, neither tasteful or tactful, but it happens.

speakout · 14/02/2018 16:57

neither tasteful or tactful

And who are you to judge?

Having left my terminally ill husband I moved in with my new lover 6 months after his death.

FluffyWuffy100 · 14/02/2018 16:59

It is often said that those who have the happiest and most loving relationships move on the quickest after the death of a partner

^This

People shouldn't confirm to you idea of an 'acceptable' grief period. His lost his wife long before she actually died - caring for someone through terminal illness is tough.

Offthebandwagonagain · 14/02/2018 17:02

Wow. He is a total waste of space. Sorry for your loss and sorry your sister was with such an arsehole

PyongyangKipperbang · 14/02/2018 17:02

I think with me it was the EXPECTATION that we all suck it up right away

It seems to be a common theme. "I have lost my wife/husband and I have moved on so why cant you?" There is no acknowledgement of others grief or need for more time. It is very selfish.

If a person was discreet and understanding about others needs then there is no reason why they cant start a new relationship while being loving and supportive to others affected by the loss, but it seems that many dont. They get so wrapped up in their new love that they forget or ignore others needs. And I still think that many focus on a new relationship because they lack the emotional maturity and insight to accept and work through their grief.

PyongyangKipperbang · 14/02/2018 17:07

Having left my terminally ill husband I moved in with my new lover 6 months after his death.

Well it all depends on why you left doesnt it?

If your marriage was unhappy or abusive or had simply run its course and you were going to leave anyway then I dont see that him being terminally ill is relevant (although I am sure you have experienced people who disagree). But if you left precisely because he was dying and you wanted a replacement so binned him off when you found someone else then I think that is very shitty and I would judge you for that.

ilovewelshrarebit123 · 14/02/2018 17:09

Firstly I'm very sorry for your loss Thanks

My best friends husband died of cancer within 7 weeks of finding out he'd got it.

6 weeks later she was on dating sites and had several intense but disastrous relationships. She'd literally finish one and then jump straight into another.

She's just got married for the 4th time and in the 25 years I've known she has never been single. She admitted she can't be on her own and needs to be in a relationship.

I think there were a few raised eyebrows but it's none of my business and up to her.

speakout · 14/02/2018 17:12

PyongyangKipperbang but the point is you don't know.

And how can any of us know what goes on inside a marriage, or someone else's head, what their feeling are.

This widower being judged on this thread- yet none of us- not even the OP has an understanding on what the situation is.

THis guy may not have cared for his wife, he may be going through turmoil, or anything inbetween.

I am sure his actions are not designed to piss off his late wife's family.
It's really none of their business how he deals with his loss.

expatinscotland · 14/02/2018 17:19

This whole 'people with good marriages move on more easily' logic seems very debatable to me. It suggests that they value being married/partnered to someone, rather than to a specific individual that they love for their own qualities, habits, characteristics.

It's a bit insulting, IMO. My father's brother married a woman 12 years his senior in 1959. That alone was seen with a lot of scepticism. They had three children, 5 grandchildren. It was a very happy marriage, for many years. After she died from stroke, her husband stopped taking the medications that controlled his high blood pressure, heart condition and diabetes. He died from heart attack less than a year later. He could not stand losing her.

I don't know what the future holds, but my own father is 5 years older than my mother, and 82 with heart condition, prostate cancer relapse and hard-to-control blood pressure. He has told me that if my mother dies before him, he will stop taking his meds and, being in the US, has a Living Will and DNR and DNAR in place due to his heart condition. They have been married for 54 years and together for 57.

Similarly, they cruise a lot. When all that went down with Costa Concordia my mother told me, if we ever get into such a situation, I'm not leaving without your father. If he goes, I'm going, too.

It's different for everyone, but I can see where he is coming from.

MsHarry · 14/02/2018 17:30

Yes expat that's what my dad told my mum, when she goes he's going too......not sure how that resulted in him getting on dating sites but there you go!

malificent7 · 14/02/2018 17:45

In my case i would have been a lot happier if they had been discreet rather than both turning up uninvited to moon over each other like love sick puppies on my sofa.

They were both incredibly okeased with themselves. Call my sister and i meanies but we weren't incredibly pleased for them as we were still reeling over the loss of my mum.

malificent7 · 14/02/2018 17:45

pleased even!

malificent7 · 14/02/2018 17:47

And his gf is lovely but absolutely no acknowledgement of my loss occured.

You feel like you cant grieve properly.

MsHarry · 14/02/2018 17:53

Ditto malificent7

PerfectlyDone · 14/02/2018 19:03

There is right or wrong way to grieve, not for him and not for you.

I am so sorry for your loss Thanks

He does seem to be utterly unable to put his stepson's needs before his own which IMO is a sign of a weak individual and utterly unfair on the child.

And the 'right to happiness' bit? Rubbish.
We can all strive to be happy, but there is no right, and as adults I believe we have a duty to put our own happiness behind dependent children's. Contentment is much underrated these days IIMO.

I don't think you can be critical of his new partner as she owes you and your family nothing. Whether it is a wise choice for her to hitch a wagon to a very recently bereaved widower is a whole other question, but it's her judgement call.

expatinscotland · 14/02/2018 19:27

No, you can't be critical publicly. All this 'You can't help whom you fall in love with' is tosh. C'mon, you're an adult, you can stop a lot of things. It's not exactly tripping over a stone. He doesn't owe you anything, I get that, ostensibly, he doesn't owe his stepson anything, either, he's not his biological son. That's his lookout. But you have to decide what sort of relationship you want with him now, if anything. And I say that as someone who, having lost her daughter, is preparing to accept a non-contact relationship with her surviving siblings if they feel I have mishandled it or them in the aftermath of her death, and as a friend of someone who has no contact with her mother for how she behaved after the death of her father.

Grief is a complex thing, I get that.

Worldsworstcook · 15/02/2018 12:57

@expatinscotland

That young lady summed it up perfectly. A family is so much more than the parent. Partners can be replaced, parents can't.

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