Thanks guys, that's what's so unique about this site, it's why I decided to remain on here, we can share things, no matter how ridiculous or silly it sounds, that if we/I confided to perhaps some others, I'd likely be locked away in a padded room somewhere...lol
It echo's what that old gentleman told me who I met in the weeks after Anns passing when I was on holiday down in Paignton, he joined me on a bench overlooking the river Dart in Dartmouth, while I was drinking a cup of tea I'd bought from a cafe/kiosk nearby.
His name was John and had lost his wife 2 years previously, he was 86yrs and they were married for I think he said 63 or 64yrs.
He told me how he took his wife's casket containing her ashes out for a drive quite often, putting the passenger seatbelt across it to keep it safely in place, he also told me how he often talked to her. Before we parted, he said I can tell you Brian, but if I told anyone else they would likely lock me up....lol We shook hands and went our different ways, he went off to rejoin his daughter, and I went for a meal in the town a few hundred yards away. An hour or so later, I felt this tap on my shoulder, and it's this John who I had been talking to, and he pushed a scrap piece of paper in my hand on which he had scribbled his phone number, saying anytime you want to chat Brian, give me a ring, he was a lovely gentleman, and we have chatted over the phone about 4 or 5 times now, and I feel he enjoys those chats as much as I do. Next time I'm down that way, I intend to take him out for a meal, as it will be nice to meet up again, because I owe that elderly gentleman an awful lot.
I've mentioned this encounter with John before in another topic some months ago but thought I'd share it again. One comment he made stood out in my mind, which was... I can tell you things Brian, which I wouldn't dream of telling anyone else, and the motto of that true story, is how I feel about this forum, something we all share I suspect. You have to have gone through it to truly empathise, because many others truly don't understand.