Losing a Spouse to Disease
- Amanda Kloots lost her husband to COVID-19 in 2020. At the time, the young couple’s son Elivs was only 1.
- In a recent podcast appearance, she says Elvis helped her get through her husband’s devastating COVID battle because he forced her to carry on in a positive way when she was filling her role as a mother.
- Moving on and moving forward after the loss of a loved one is a very important distinction, according to former cancer caregiver Doug Wendt.
- There are many tools and resources for grieving people to turn to after someone special in their life passes away.
- One tool Camila Legaspi used to move forward after the loss of her mother to breast cancer was therapy.
Kloots, a 41-year-old co-host of the CBS show, lost her Broadway star husband to COVID-19 in July 2020 after a four-month battle with the disease. He was only 41 at the time, and his son with Kloots, Elvis, was 1.
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“It was this crazy duality that I was living at that time where I would be in the hospital and I’d be like this complete other person, fight or flight wife mode,” she explained. “And then I’d walk into that door and I was playful mom.
“But I think it’s just, again, what you have to do in life when you’re a parent and losing someone and this other life is, like you said, it doesn’t stop. Elvis wasn’t stopping.”
Kloots went on to explain Elvis was simply too young to understand anything that was happening with his father. This, in turn, forced her to fill the role of a full-of-life mother.
“It’s not like he was like, ‘You no what mom, you can take a break today,'” she said, jokingly. “I had no other option, so he saved me because of that.
“Because I had no other option, he forced me to smile and forced me to get out of bed and forced me to go on a walk and push the stroller. So, it was such a blessing.”
Losing a Loved One to Disease Like Amanda Kloots
In reflecting on her immense loss, Amanda Kloots has shared many of the invaluable lessons she’s learned from her grief.
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“I've learned to say different goodbyes,” she said in a heartbreaking Instagram post. “I've learned to always tell people you love them. I've learned that life is fragile, and we are not invincible. Live and love to the fullest.”
Former cancer caregiver Doug Wendt has also learned many hard lessons from grief. After being married for 23 years, Wendt lost his beloved wife Alice to a two-year battle with ovarian cancer.
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"We're never going to move on," he said. "I don't even think I want to move on, but I do want to move forward.
"And that's an important distinction, and I encourage anyone who goes through this journey as a caregiver who then has to face loss to think very carefully about how to move forward."
There are many tools and resources for grieving people to turn to after someone special in their life passes away. One tool Camila Legaspi used to move forward after the loss of her mother was therapy.
"Therapy Saved My Life": After Losing A Loved One, Don't Be Afraid To Ask For Help
"Therapy saved my life," she told SurvivorNet. "I was dealing with some really intense anxiety and depression at that point. It just changed my life, because I was so drained by all the negativity that was going on.
“Going to a therapist helped me realize that there was still so much out there for me, that I still had my family, that I still had my siblings.”
If you are trying to cope with the loss of a loved one or handle any other mental health issue, check out SurvivorNet's resources on taking care of both your body and mind.
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