My (30M) girlfriend (32F) thinks I need to return to therapy for my wife's death

Aside from your grief for Emily, which everyone else here has covered so well, you’re also grieving for yourself and your own lost youth.

Because you were with Emily since high school, you feel you’ve lost your connection reaching back to that time. That the one person who shares those old memories and remembers you as you were has now gone. But all those things did still happen, it hasn’t been wiped out.

This is a significant part of your grief and it’s very hard on Claire because she will never be able to fill that gap. You need to find a way to cherish what happened in the past by yourself and go on to make new memories with Claire.

/r/relationship_advice Thread