All the lies and betrayals we face in life shape who we become, making us stronger and wiser, even if it doesn’t feel that way at the time. Instead of letting these moments hold them back, people in this article moved forward bravely and shared their stories online.

The Story:

In the last year of my grandfather’s life, he had dementia and was losing touch with reality. Before he went into hospice, he kept saying that a man was in his house at night, taking his things and using his stuff. Grandma kept telling him that she was the only one there. His doctor gave him more medication because he was having a hard time knowing what was real.

At my grandfather’s funeral, a man showed up who most of the family didn’t know. He was an old friend of my grandmother’s, there to show his support. In a small town, it wasn’t strange to see someone at a funeral who had known the person at some point.

About a year later, my grandmother mentioned she was seeing someone—the man from the funeral. It seemed normal; they met at church, and we thought it was sweet. But later, Grandma said it was their third anniversary. Grandpa had died two years earlier. This man was the person Grandpa had seen in his house every night. He was the reason everyone thought Grandpa was losing his mind and why he was heavily medicated for the last year of his life.