My boyfriend’s father passed away yesterday. He was such a nice and funny man. He could make anyone laugh. He emphasized the fact that you need to follow your dreams, no matter where it takes you. He meant so much to me and I still haven’t fully comprehended the fact he’s gone. What makes it absolutely horrible is that he passed away on our 1 year anniversary. The other morning, him and his mother came to my families house quite early. This was the first time I’d seen him in about a month (I thought our relationship was falling apart, but it was just the opposite) and that mixed with the fact he was obviously upset made it enough for me to go over to him and hug him while crying in front of everyone. After a moment I looked up to ask him what was wrong and he said “My dad.” I kinda let go and started leaning for the door with the mindset we were going to the hospital. I asked “What about him?” And he said “He passed away.” I immediately latched onto him hard and cried so hard when I found this out. I went over to his mom and hugged her and she began to cry. After everyone had settled, his mom told us to go to the other room, since she’s keeping some details from my boyfriend. My mom was in the other room and she ofc had 21 questions for him. He was trying to keep it together and finally I had to tell my mom to stop asking questions, because sometimes she really doesn’t know when to stop. She hugged him and told us to go off into my room and talk about it or sit quietly about it or whatever we needed to do. We both laid in my room and cried about it the whole time. One time, my dog came in to get on the bed and I moved a little bit from him to give her some room. After she got up, he looked at me really sadly and just grabbed out for me. I moved back over to him and he cried on my shoulder so hard. His mom eventually came to get my boyfriend. She pulled me aside and told me that the first place he wanted to go this morning when he found out was to my house. His mom informed me that they would probably stop by here a lot more to get away from all the commotion and family members talking about “bake sales” or “my feet are cold” and not realizing how serious the matter was.

HERES WHERE I NEED ADVICE

I’m trying to be strong about his fathers death, but it’s really hard when he meant so much to me too and I kinda failed in general yesterday with the whole staying strong concept. I also understand he wants to come to me for comfort, but I don’t know what to say, because everything I know to say is something someone else has said to me about previous losses that are cliches that just make the loss hurt so much more. I didn’t wanna hurt him yesterday so I all I said, or rather mumbled through tears was “sorry” and “I love you”. What do I say? How do I be strong for him and how much worse is it gonna get for him? When I saw him yesterday, he wasn’t really showing any emotions other than gentle sobbing and exhaling a lot. Any advice is welcome.