My husband feeling sad every day

My husband lost his mother to whom he was extremely close nearly 1 year ago. We've been married about 9 months, and over time I've noticed that he seems to be dealing with her death easier than in past. However, even though he acts happy and is always affectionate toward me, he still says he is sad every day and says that even though he has a smile on his face he still has sadness in his heart. I asked him if his behavior was genuine when he would joke around and laugh with me and he said it was, but he says that even though he has "moments of happiness" he still has sadness in his heart. Is this normal behavior? I'm at a loss of what to think at times because I havent suffered a loss of a parent as he has. I try to be understanding and compassionate toward him, especially when he is having a really sad day (which have become fewer and fewer over time). I also feel bad because I cant take the sadness away which is something I would love to do since I am his wife. We are expecting our first child in four months. My only hope is that our baby will help bring him happiness. I told him the other day that I think the baby will make our lives better. He said "She already has" So, I am hopeful he will continue to get better. Do any of you have any advice or persective on my husband's behavior? Sometimes I feel clueless. Thanks!

He is grieving still .. give him some space .. time will heal eventually. Hang in there Jane.

acceptance is the sweetest gift... let him grieve, it may take years... it is a good thing to have a child come and take attention away from that loss...

Am going to repeat what the others said. Give him time. Let him grieve at his own pace. It is commendable that you want to take his pain away, but he needs time to work his way through it. It is definitely possible to feel sad on a daily basis and still have periods of happiness.

For what it's worth , it took me over four years before I did not hurt on a daily basis about my mom's death.

My deepest condolences to your husband. I agree with what everyone else said, and add that although there are unhealthy levels of grieving, it doesn't sound as if your husband is at that point.

I've seen it--my ex, more than a year after losing his mother, used to deliberately play clusters of old Southern Gospel songs about somebody's dead saintly mother who's up in Heaven now, and sit there and cry all afternoon. He and his sisters already had their minds made up that "This year, Christmas is going to suck, now that Mama's gone," and then with their attitudes made sure it did. I think they sometimes acted as if they were the only people in the world ever to lose their mother. And it wasn't only her. Every holiday, and on everybody's birthday, they'd make their rounds visiting the cemeteries, and stand there at the graveside of someone who died upwards of fifteen or twenty years ago, wailing and sobbing as if it just happened last week.

This said, an anniversary or something like a milestone birthday ("Mama would have been 70 today....") can bring it all back and trigger a temporary bout with tears. This is normal, even decades later. I know, I lost my youngest child 26 years ago, and every year on the anniversary of when it happened, I have a dip in my depression level. It's when people stay obsessively stuck in it, like my ex and his family did, that I don't think it's healthy. I will never "forget" my daughter, and I will never "get over it." But I don't have to sit around playing songs about dead children, and fixate on it.