Nearly a year after Bruce Willis’ retirement from acting after being diagnosed with aphasia, the Die Hard star and his family are celebrating his 68th birthday. Of course, given how his condition has worsened of late, it’s a bittersweet celebration.
Willis’ wife Emma Heming Willis has been keeping fans posted about her husband’s condition on Instagram, however, today she took a moment to share and journal her own emotional state.
Heming Willis muses about how she is constantly bombarded with messages of support and appreciation for the strength she demonstrates, but reiterates that she isn’t given a choice in the matter and has no way forward but to just get on with it – not only with her husband’s deteriorating condition, but with raising their two children at the same time.
“So today is my husband’s birthday. I have started the morning by crying, as you can see by my swollen eyes and snotty nose. I just think it’s important that you see all sides of this. I always get this message, or people always tell me that ‘Oh, you’re so strong, I don’t know how you do it.’ I’m not given a choice. I wish I was. But I’m also raising two kids in this, so sometimes in our lives, we have to put our big girl panties on and get to it, and that’s what I’m doing. But I do have times of sadness every day, grief every day, and I’m really feeling it today on his birthday.”
Heming Willis goes on to share how she was preparing an Instagram reel for her husband’s birthday, when this wave of emotion washed over her. She takes the moment to remind herself that she put herself through the wringer to prepare these sorts of clips because she knows how much Willis’ fans love him, and how much that love means to her.
Last month, Heming Willis shared that the Die Hard star’s aphasia had progressed and that he and his family were now dealing with a specific diagnosis, frontotemporal dementia.
