Hospice ‘a lifeline to me’ after double bereavement
Ex-midwife thanks ‘amazing’ charities after losing her husband and mother
WITHIN the first month of lockdown last year, a former midwife had lost her husband and mother but says the support she got from charities was a ‘lifeline’.
Theresa Walmsley, known as Terry, had been looking after her husband David, 70, since 2018 when he first started feeling unwell with doctors calling his symptoms a conundrum.
The pair, who lived in Waterlooville and have two daughters, were told he had bowel cancer and acute myeloid leukaemia – a cancer of the white blood cells.
After being in and out of hospital over the past couple of years, David was taken to Rowans Hospice, a palliative care unit in Purbrook, in February last year before he was moved to Lathams Care Home, where he died on April 16, 2020.
Just four days later Terry’s 95-year-old mother passed away at her care home in Brighton.
Terry, also 70, said: ‘It has been really hard and I have good and bad weeks.
‘I had breast cancer in 2005 and David looked after me. When he was unwell he always wanted to sort himself out but I said now it is my turn to take care of you.
‘We had amazing hospital staff and I would visit QA every day when he was there. I spent time at the Macmillan centre while at QA and they told me to get in touch with Rowans Hospice.
‘I went to their Living Well Centre and I was so overwhelmed that I couldn’t even speak. I think up until then I had been in denial about what was happening but a nurse took me aside and spoke to me.
‘David and I went to the centre often for cake and support and when he went there, I knew he wouldn’t be coming home again but the staff were absolutely amazing.
‘When he was moved to Latham their staff were amazing too. It was during lockdown but they let me visit him at his window and see him in his final days.’
Nine months on and Terry is getting weekly group support sessions through Rowan Hospice’s Bereavement Services.
She added: ‘Talking to people who have been through the same thing has been really helpful. Rowans have been a lifeline to me.’ Visit rowanshospice.co.uk/care/bereavement-services/