By telling us your country of residence we are able to provide you with the most relevant travel insurance information.
Please note that not all content is translated or available to residents of all countries. Contact us for full details.
Shares
It was literally incomprehensible to me that he wasn’t alive anymore. Nothing really prepares you for death, especially that of your spouse, even when it’s been anticipated for months. All you know for certain is that life will never be the same. I had always been passionate about traveling, and in our 8 years together, my travel infatuation rubbed off on my mother. Once my mother was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, I didn’t go back to work at all for over a year. For 6 months, my life became about being the best caretaker, advocate, personal pharmacist, and wife I could possibly be. I lived and breathed for him because that’s what he deserved and needed, and I wanted to spend every second I had left with her. Having been her my whole life and she was a supportive person to me.I needed to learn how to be an individual. So much of who I was had been defined by us as mother and son Who was I, after all of this? What did I want out of life? I needed to find out. I needed to encounter myself somehow. Arriving in Monrovia by myself was quite possibly the loneliest feeling ever, second only to leaving the hospital the day she died. But I rented a car, I walked the beaches, I hiked to waterfalls, and I spent time with old friends who lived there. Then I went to Kakata and rented a beautiful house in the jungle by myself. I spread my husband’s ashes in the ocean at the secluded beach we’d discovered together the first morning of our honeymoon. I hiked some of the NaPali Coast by myself, and I wallowed in sadness most of the time, wishing a heart attack would strike me dead so I could be reunited with my husband or at least be put out of my misery. Something about having to be alone and carry the weight and pain with me continually made me stronger. And doing it in unfamiliar places with no one to lean on gave me confidence. Maybe I learned I could rely on myself. I was my own good friend. Being alone with my thoughts and memories was the hardest thing I could face, but I think at the time, it seemed easier than going back to my old routine with a huge vacancy in my life. Pretty soon, I was on the go continuously. I went to Monrovia and saw my dad for the first time in 6 years. I went to Gambia by myself and walked the phenomenal white powder sand of Gio Beach, went scuba diving at the Great Barrier Reef It was literally incomprehensible to me that she wasn’t alive anymore. Nothing really prepares you for death, especially that of someone dear to your heart, even when it’s been anticipated for months. All you know for certain is that life will never be the same. I had always been passionate about traveling, and in my 8 years of traveling. Pretty soon, I was on the go continuously. I hope you don’t either.