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April O'Neill's avatar

Beautiful article. Reading something this beautiful and heartfelt is what makes me so thankful Substack exists. Thank you for sharing your experiential knowledge within your experience with grief. I wish I had better words at the moment, but I think that's kind of the effect grief often tends to have… Words can never quite feel adequate enough.

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CJ Infantino's avatar

Aw, I wholeheartedly appreciate your kindness and generosity.

I agree, words do feel inadequate, but even the acknowledgment of that is powerful!

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The Quiet Caregiver's avatar

THIS is beautiful in every way. I wrote a piece today about caregiving and caregivers but not in traditional sense. I wish I included a widowed father. Grief is hard and always has a way of showing up when you least expect it and not know what to do with it when it arrives. Thank you for sharing your authenticity with us it truly is a beautiful piece.

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CJ Infantino's avatar

Aw thank you for the kindness and reading. Please link the post you wrote!

And you are so right, grief will hit when we least expect it.

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Victoria's avatar

There's so much courage, trust and love that you've articulated between the lines here CJ. These may be hard truths, a journey towards joy-filled moments, giving yourself permission with grace and making those hard reframes..but they highlight something we caregivers have learnt the hard way - to keep adapting and showing up for ourselves and others with an agility. Tough love and the real-deal self-care! Thank you.

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CJ Infantino's avatar

Thank you for validating what I've shared and for taking the time to read. I really resonate with your line, "to keep adapting and show up for ourselves and others with agility."

Every three months, my wife had her scans to check on the cancer, and almost every scan brought more bad news. We did that for over five years, and each time we had to adjust our lives, marriage, and expectations.

It was an ever-adapting situation.

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