Bruce Willis’ wife, Emma Heming Willis, shared a touching memory from her early days of being his caregiver.
“I remember one of the first FTD events I attended, an educational conference. I was like a deer in headlights,” she wrote in her Instagram Story on Friday, December 12, according to Parade. “The room was filled with current and former FTD caregivers, and I just sat there, wide-eyed, watching people talk, smile… even laugh. I remember thinking, How can this be? How are they laughing? How can there be joy in the midst of this disease?”
The mother of two—who shares daughters Mabel and Evelyn with the Die Hard actor—continued, “But that moment changed something in me. It gave me new perspective. It gave me hope. If they could walk through it and still find these moments of joy, maybe I could too.”
She added, “That small belief became something I held onto, tightly. You don’t have to have it all figured out. I didn’t either, I still don’t. But we find our way and I’m here to share my hope that you will too. We’re going to be OK.”
Willis was diagnosed with aphasia in 2022, which caused him to retire from his successful acting career. The following year, however, his family announced the beloved actor was battling frontotemporal dementia.
Heming took over as his primary caregiving, often sharing updates with his millions of fans.
“Bruce is still very mobile,” she told ABC News in August. “Bruce is in really great health overall, you know. It’s just his brain that is failing him. The language is going, and, you know, we’ve learned to adapt. And we have a way of communicating with him, which is just a … different way.”
