HUFFPOST – Emma Heming Willis, the wife of actor Bruce Willis, shared a raw and vulnerable post on Instagram earlier this week about the reality of being a caregiver and all the challenges that can come with it.
Among the different ways society may overlook the various caregiving experiences, there’s one aspect of it that isn’t often talked about: Many times it’s an “invisible” job.
In the Instagram video posted on Monday, Heming Willis had addressed the recent deaths of actor Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, who died a week apart from different diseases in their home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, last month.
According to a medical examiner, Arakawa, 65, died from pulmonary syndrome caused by hantavirus — a disease typically spread by rodents.
Hackman, 95, died a week later of “hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, with Alzheimer’s disease as a significant contributory factor,” Dr. Heather Jarrell, chief medical investigator said at a news conference last week.
“So this is not something I would normally comment on, but I do really believe that there is some learning in this story in regards to the tragic passing of Mr. and Mrs. Hackman,” Heming Willis said in the video.
“It’s just made me think of this broader story, and that is that caregivers need care, too.”
After addressing Arakawa and Hackman’s deaths in the video, Heming Willis then talked more broadly about the role of caregivers, and some common misconceptions about it.
She has previously opened up about her own experience caring for her husband, who has been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia.
She also has a book that aims to provide a support guide for caregivers that’s due out this year …
