Bruce Willis and Emma Heming Willis in 2019.
Photo: Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Film at Lincoln
Emma Heming Willis wrote an essay on the “grief” that comes with the holidays when caring for a loved one with dementia on her website on December 20. She explains how she feels a “mix of grief” and “annoyance” when getting ready for the holidays with her family without the help of her husband, actor Bruce Willis, who was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia in 2023. “I find myself, harmlessly, cursing Bruce’s name while wrestling with the holiday lights or taking on tasks that used to be his. Not because I’m mad at him, never that, but because I miss the way he once led the holiday charge,” she explained. “Yes, he taught me well, but I’m still allowed to feel annoyed that this is one more reminder of how things have changed.”
On the changes in her household, she shared that just because there is sadness and grief, it doesn’t mean that there can’t be happiness. She added, “There’s a misconception that if the holidays aren’t what they once were, they must be hollow. But meaning doesn’t require everything to stay the same. It requires connection. This holiday season, our family will still unwrap gifts and sit together at breakfast. But instead of Bruce making our favorite pancakes, I will.” As for what the Willis family will be doing this holiday, she concluded, “We’ll put on a holiday movie. There will be laughter and cuddles. And there will almost certainly be tears because we can grieve and make room for joy. The joy doesn’t cancel out the sadness. The sadness doesn’t cancel out the joy. They coexist.”
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