Heartbreaking Illustrations By Disney Animator Reveals How Life Looks Like With 2 Kids After Wife's Death

Gary Andrews is a former Disney illustrator so it's no surprise that his main coping mechanism is his 'doodle diary'. He started his illustrated diary on his 54th birthday as a happily married father-of-two. Who would have thought that a tragedy would strike and Gary would become a widower just three years later. Gary was on a work trip to Canada as his beautiful wife named Joy (the name speaks for itself) fell ill with was then believed to be a simple flu.  However, it was soon clear that it was way more serious than that. Gary rushed home to be near his beloved and on arrival back in the UK he received the devastating news: Joy had passed away from sepsis. Gary struggled to cope with his overwhelming grief, that's when he turned to his doodle diary. “I was crying so hard it was difficult to focus on the page. I was drawing through tears,” he told the Daily Mail. “Joy had been my soulmate for 19 years. She was beautiful, kind, generous and funny. We did everything together. When I lost her, I felt half of me had gone.” Gary continued his diary illustrating small ups and downs in his life, Joey became a recurring character in his work along with his beautiful children that bring the joy to his life. Gary now is trying to raise awareness to sepsis,  an illness that is often regarded as an afterthought for many doctors. Its symptoms, including fever, sickness, blotchy skin and dizziness, are often mistaken for other illnesses and not recognized until too late. It is important to know if sepsis is captured early on, it can be treated with simple antibiotics. Gary does not blame anyone for his wife's death, “From the minute Joy was admitted to hospital, specialists from every department tried to find out what was wrong,' he says. “They couldn't have done more. It wasn't until the post-mortem that they narrowed it down to sepsis.” “Blame and 'what ifs' won't bring Joy back. Would she still be alive if I hadn't been in Canada and a doctor had been called a day earlier? I can't think about things like that. What happened has happened and you just have to come to terms with it. I just want to move forward, to honour Joy's memory and bring up our kids in a way she would have approved of.” More info: Twitter (h/t)

Gary Andrews is a former Disney illustrator who's been coping with his overwhelming grief of losing his wife

He started drawing some doodles in his journal as a form of coping with the loss of his spouse, and he noticed it helped a bit

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