I lost my dad just over twelve months ago and my mom six months before that.
I feel like I’m just existing now, going through the motions, not really living or finding any real joy in life any more.
I’m struggling to really accept I’ll never ever see them again. Does this ‘new normal’ ever become normal and does the joy in life ever really return?
Hello Jmk, so sorry for the loss of your parents..this new normal..that none of us on this site wants, is our reality now. I lost my husband in March, and im completely devastated at having lost my best friend and soul mate. ..I don’t think we ever get over losing our loved ones. Our love doesn’t die when they do, ..but we hafta find a way forward with our lives as best we can, hopefully as years pass it will lessen the pain..take care of yourself and may God bless you 
I know how you feel, I am very sorry. I don’t know either, I still have my dad, and keep telling myself I have to keep existing for him and my children. Inevitably some day both parents will be gone. The only thing I can say to you that might help you is to try imagine how much worse it would be for your parents if you had died before them. And for you in case you would have known you had to go before them and that they would be without you in old age. I pray for all of us here that we get through this somehow.
@daughter7 My parents had already lost two children. Their first born at just a few months and then my eldest brother at just 16. My dad had also lost his own mom when he was about 5. I really don’t know how they coped all their lives with that level of pain when it feels unbearable at times coping with the expected natural order of loss.
That must have been heartbreaking for them. Maybe try to think they are united with the ones who passed before them now, and you will be too some day…
Hi. I can totally relate, Jmk. I lost my dad in 1994 and my late mum just 5 weeks ago now. I feel like what’s the point when you’ve lost to most important ppl in your life. Where all children in adult bodies really.
Sorry for the loss of your parents @Kate80 
You’re so right, we are all children in adult bodies. When I lost my dad just 6 months after my mom I felt like an abandoned child, and still do. My parents’ house is currently up for sale and I go once or twice a week to check on the place, do the garden etc. Every time I leave I still say goodbye to them both. It’s heartbreaking, every time.
Oh, that’s harder again, having to clean out the house… It must be horrible, I honestly don’t know how people do it. (I didn’t have to do that for now…) My heart goes out to you.