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Rumer Willis is reflecting on her relationship with dad Bruce Willis on Father’s Day amid his dementia diagnosis.
In an emotional post shared to Instagram account on Sunday, June 15, the eldest daughter of the Die Hard star, 70, and Demi Moore, 62, spoke about her love for her dad and opened up about the struggles she faces not being able to connect with him the way she did prior to his diagnosis.
“Today is hard,” Rumer, 36, began her caption, sharing photos of herself and her dad from childhood. “I feel a deep ache in my chest to talk to you and tell you everything I’m doing and what’s going on in my life. To hug you and ask you about life and your stories and struggles and successes.”
“I wish I asked you more questions while you could still tell me about it all,” she continued. “But I know you wouldn’t want me to be sad today, so I’ll try to just be grateful reminding myself how lucky I am that you’re my dad and that you’re still with me and I can still hold you and hug you and kiss your cheek and rub your head I can tell you stories.”
Referring to her 2-year-old daughter Louetta, whom she shares with her ex Derek Richard Thomas, Rumer also wrote about being able to watch Bruce’s eyes “light up” when he sees her.
“I will be grateful for every moment I have with you,” she concluded. “I love you so much dad happy Father’s Day. Sending love to all those who are in the boat with me or have lost their fathers, to the single moms who are the dads too, to my future baby daddy ❤️.”
Photos in the post showed Bruce and his eldest daughter standing on the beach together, Bruce carrying her on his shoulders, and the pair posing together in a more recent black-and-white photo.
Bruce was diagnosed with diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia in 2022. Commonly called FTD, the disease is the most common form of dementia for people under the age of 60, and it has no treatment or cure.
Aside from Rumer, the rest of the Sixth Sense actor’s family — including Scout LaRue Willis, 33, and Tallulah Belle Willis, 31, both of whom he shares with ex-wife Moore. His current wife Emma Heming Willis — and their daughters Mabel Ray Willis, 13, and Evelyn Penn Willis, 11 — have been candid about the difficulties of dealing with his disease at a relatively young age.
Emma Heming Willis Instagram
Emma also shared an emotional post dedicated to her husband on Father’s Day, dedicating the special holiday to fathers “living with disability or disease” on Instagram.
“Happy Father’s Day to all the dads living with disability or disease, showing up in the ways they can and to the children who show up for them,” Emma captioned a snap of Bruce cuddling with one of his younger daughters.
“I’m profoundly sad today. I wish, with every cell in my body, that things could be different for him and lighter for our family,” she wrote. “As they say in our FTD community, ‘It is what it is.’ And while that might sound dismissive, to me, it’s not. It grounds me. It helps me return to the acceptance of what is and not fight this every step of the way like I used to.”
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In May, Emma told PEOPLE that when her husband was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia in 2022, she was given almost no direction about what to do next.
“We received a diagnosis and sent away with no hope, no guidance, no nothing, and I really had to figure out how to put resources into place,” Emma, said. “And it was a lot of searching the Internet, trying to figure things out.”
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The mother of two then took the initiative to learn about Bruce’s condition for herself, and ultimately put everyone else’s needs ahead of her own.
“I think that was my downfall. I thought that that’s what I was supposed to do,” she said. “What I’ve learned in all of this is that the most important person is the caregiver. We have to care for the caregiver, because when we care for ourselves, we can then show up for the person that we love.”
