By Mallory Mattingly
Bruce Willis’ wife, Emma Heming Willis, opened up about how hard Father’s Day was for her family as Bruce battles dementia.
“Happy Father’s Day to all the dads living with disability or disease, showing up in the ways they can and to the children who show up for them,” she posted on Sunday. ”What Bruce teaches our girls goes far beyond words. Resilience, unconditional love, and the quiet strength in simply being present. This photo says so much. Love deepens. It adapts. It stays, even when everything else changes.”
“But to be fair to myself, these symbolic days stir up a lot. I’m profoundly sad today,” she added candidly. “I wish, with every cell in my body, that things could be different for him and lighter for our family.”
Bruce and his family announced his aphasia diagnosis in 2022. By the following year, his diagnosis had progressed to frontotemporal dementia.
“As they say in our FTD community, ‘It is what it is,'” Emma continued. “And while that might sound dismissive, to me, it’s not. It grounds me. It helps me return to the acceptance of what is and not fight this every step of the way like I used to.”
Bruce’s FTD diagnosis flipped their lives upside down, and Emma dove headfirst into the FTD community to find ways to cope and help her husband. Now, she has written a book to share their journey.
“I’m honored to share the cover of my first book, ‘The Unexpected Journey: Finding Strength, Hope and Yourself on the Caregiving Path,'” she wrote on Instagram.
“Born from grief, shaped by love, and guided by purpose, this is the book I needed back when Bruce was first diagnosed and I was frozen with fear and uncertainty,” she continued. “This is the book I trust will help the next caregiver. It is filled with support, insight, and the hope needed to navigate this journey.”
It releases on Sept. 9.
Related: Emma Heming Willis Still Finds ‘Joy’ With Husband Bruce Willis
Her advocacy for the FTD community is personal. After learning of Bruce’s diagnosis and leaving the “doctor’s office with a pamphlet and a hollow goodbye,” she didn’t know where to turn.
“No plan, no guidance, no hope, just shock,” Emma said. “The future we imagined simply vanished, and I was left trying to hold my family together, raise our two young daughters, and care for the man I love while navigating a disease I barely understood.”
“I felt lost, isolated and scared,” she added. “What I needed in that moment at that appointment wasn’t just medical information. I needed someone to look me in the eye and say, ‘This feels impossible right now, but you will find your footing. You will survive this and you will grow because of it.’”
That’s what Emma plans to do through her new book.
Though holidays like Father’s Day make Bruce’s diagnosis harder to bear, the Willis family continues to cherish the moments they have together.
Read Next: Emma Heming Willis Spotlights Caregivers After Gene Hackman, Wife’s Deaths
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