Celebrating Life After Loss
- Homeland actor Damian Lewis, 51, suffered an unimaginable loss last year when he lost his wife of 14 years, fellow actress Helen McCrory, at 52 years old. Now, one year later, Lewis honors his partner’s legacy with a beautiful memorial.
- The Peaky Blinders star, who was also affectionately known as Narcissa Malfoy from the Harry Potter series, privately battled breast cancer, and is survived by two teenage children along with her husband.
- Losing a spouse to cancer is devastating, and working through grief is an ongoing process. Cherishing memories and frequently surrounding yourself with friends and family to celebrate your late loved one’s life can help with healing.
The Peaky Blinders actress, who was also affectionately known as Narcissa Malfoy from the Harry Potter series, privately battled breast cancer. To make things even more tough at the time, the pandemic interfered with families getting to properly say goodbye to their loved ones, as many in-person funerals and memorials were halted, and travel was difficult. Now, one year later, Damian was finally able to hold a special service in London to honor and celebrate his late love’s legacy in her birthplace.
Read More"She was fiercely proud of being an artist, an actress," Lewis penned in a tribute shortly after Helen’s death. "Her OBE, recognition of her exquisite talent, made her so happy. Her craft was something she approached with a rigour, an honesty, an intelligence that made others rise to meet her, but she never imposed herself, because she loved collaboration, whether that was in film, TV or theatre. But as she said to me a few weeks ago, 'Doing theatre is what made my heart sing.’"
Damian Lewis (@lewis_damian) April 16, 2021
In addition to honoring her career as an actress, he also gave grieving fans a glimpse of the more personal side of Helen.
"Helen was an even more brilliant person than she was an actress. She was a people person, sure. 'I'm much more interested in who I'm with than where I am,' she would say, and innately wanted to share," he said.
"But she also lived by the principle of kindness and generosity. That you put these things out into the world to make it better, to make people feel better. I've never known anyone so consciously spread happiness. To say 'please' and 'thank you' and 'you're so kind' as much as she did."
Following his tragic loss, Damian nobly stepped away from actingand his role on Billions last yearto focus on being present for his kids, and grieve as a family.
Coping with Loss of a Spouse to Cancer
Losing a spouse to cancer is devastating, and working through grief is an ongoing process. For people with children, like Damian and Helen, it can be especially gut-wrenching for a family to lose a wife and mother in one blow.
"She's left our beautiful children, Manon and Gully, too early, but they have been prepared for life," Lewis had shared. "They have in them the fearlessness, wit, curiosity, talent and beauty of their mother. She has exhorted us to be courageous and not afraid. As she said repeatedly to the children, 'Don't be sad, because even though I'm about to snuff it, I've lived the life I wanted to'."
Dealing With Grief After a Cancer Diagnosis
In an earlier interview with SurvivorNet, author Jason Rosenthal recalled what it was like losing wife Amy to ovarian cancer and how they coped as a family. "One of the things that I really appreciate now with some distance and I talk about this with peopleis Amy and I had a pretty decent amount of time to have some really detailed conversations about what it was going to be like for me moving forward," he says. "And just as an aside, I encourage people to have those conversations now when they're younger."
Related: The Toughest Conversations: Losing a Spouse to Cancer
And as for single parenting, Rosenthal remembers his wife's advice. "What she said to me in theory, specific detail, was, 'Yes, of course you can't replace a mother, but you can't replace a father either, and you have a great relationship with each one of these kids, and you're going to be okay.'"
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Contributing by SurvivorNet staff.
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