Bruce Willis' wife Emma Heming marks his birthday with moving message about grief

(CNN) — As Bruce Willis turned 68 on Sunday, his wife Emma Heming marked the day with a candid message about caring for someone living with frontotemporal dementia (FTD).

"I have started the morning by crying as you can see by my swollen eyes," Heming said in a Reels posted to her verified Instagram.

In her continued effort to spread awareness about the realities of processing a dementia diagnosis in the family, Heming went on to share that she thinks "it's important that you see all sides of this."

"I always get this message where people always tell me, 'Oh you're so strong. I don't know how you do it.' I'm not given a choice. I wish I was but I'm also raising two kids in this," she said, referencing their two daughters, Mabel and Evelyn.

Heming added that "sometimes in our lives, we have to put our big girl panties on and get to it, and that's what I'm doing. But I do have times of sadness every day, grief every day and I'm really feeling it today on his birthday."

Willis' family, including ex-wife Demi Moore and their three children Rumer, Scout and Tallulah, shared an update in February that the actor was diagnosed with FTD after first disclosing his diagnosis of aphasia in 2022.

According to the Mayo Clinic, FTD is an "umbrella term for a group of brain disorders that primarily affect the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain. These areas of the brain are generally associated with personality, behavior and language."

Heming has made it a point to document her journey as Willis' caregiver and said in the caption of Sunday's post that the messages of support that she reads from her followers help her in this respect.

Tearing up, she concluded her video message saying that "as much as I do it for myself, I do it for you because I know how much you love my husband."