If you are missing loved one this Christmas, hugs to you.

[Amy loves Bud]

I just found out that my mom's two very best friends died recently - one last month and the other about 3 months ago. They were dear sweet ladies who lived long and interesting lives. They were elderly and I know their health made their passing a blessing.

 

But, oh, it just brings a wave of emotion today. I miss having my mom and dad around all year, but during the holidays, it's particularly difficult. This news just highlighted their absence for me.

 

So, if you are like me and missing those you've loved who've passed on, here are some understanding hugs for you.

 

:grouphug:

 

May your memories bring you a special kind of joy this holiday.

[Sugarfoot]

and :grouphug: to you, too.

 

It's been a few years since I lost my grandparents, but I really miss them at this time of year.

[Jean in Newcastle]

Thank you. Dh's aunt died yesterday.

[EarleneW]

Hugs to you too. January will be 8 years since my mom passed away and next week will be 4 that my dad has been gone. I had a pity party this morning and am now pushing through. It never gets easier and your so right that the holidays are much harder.

[Doran]

I just found out that my mom's two very best friends died recently - one last month and the other about 3 months ago. They were dear sweet ladies who lived long and interesting lives. They were elderly and I know their health made their passing a blessing.

 

But, oh, it just brings a wave of emotion today. I miss having my mom and dad around all year, but during the holidays, it's particularly difficult. This news just highlighted their absence for me.

 

So, if you are like me and missing those you've loved who've passed on, here are some understanding hugs for you.

 

:grouphug:

 

May your memories bring you a special kind of joy this holiday.

 

 

Sending the same wishes and understanding back to you. We opened a present from my mother tonight which was marked as "from Dad". It was a photograph of him, still robust, wearing his hunting clothes and a very big smile. I am as choked up writing this as I was when I opened the picture. Yet, somehow, that photo also helps me put Dad in the room with us...as I know he is anyway, in his own way.

 

Hugs to you, dear. I sure do know where you're coming from.

[kalanamak]

The human heart is so odd. I mourn for a GM I never met (she died in the '40's). When my dad died, the last of her children were gone. I know she worked long and hard for them, as a widow with 4 children under 15. She's who I "talk to" at night, telling her what her grandchildren are doing and that a great-great-great grandchild was born this year.

 

And now my brother is close to death, and my mother and father will be losing the their first piece of life's-work. I'm so glad they aren't here to see it.

 

I know this famous poem is written to a child, but it speaks to me:

 

Spring and Fall: To a Young Child

 

 

 

• 
  MARGARET, are you grieving Over Goldengrove unleaving? Leaves, like the things of man, you With your fresh thoughts care for, can you? Ah! as the heart grows older It will come to such sights colder By and by, nor spare a sigh Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie. And yet you will weep and know why. Now no matter, child, the name: Sorrow's springs are the same. Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed What heart heard of, ghost guessed: It is the blight man was born for, It is Margaret you mourn for.
  

 

[BamaTanya]

Sending the same wishes and understanding back to you. We opened a present from my mother tonight which was marked as "from Dad". It was a photograph of him, still robust, wearing his hunting clothes and a very big smile. I am as choked up writing this as I was when I opened the picture. Yet, somehow, that photo also helps me put Dad in the room with us...as I know he is anyway, in his own way.

 

Hugs to you, dear. I sure do know where you're coming from.

 

Doran - how lovely! This morning Dad brought us a present -- He's been writing his and Mom's love story since she passed away in the spring. He typed it up with some snapshots and put it into a binder for each of his dc.

 

It is a bittersweet feeling, isn't it? Missing them and still feeling them here . . .

 

:grouphug: for all of us! Thank you, Amy, for introducing this thread.

[Vida Winter]

My mom and stepdad had old family movies put onto a DVD for my Christmas present this year. I watched all morning with tears because I saw my dad again (who passed on some 13 years ago), youthful and clowning around. And me as a baby and toddler! I feel ancient. The movies were from around 1960-1965.

 

Absolutely my heart goes out to all of you who are missing someone this Christmas.

[Momto5]

What a thoughtful post Amy. Thank you and a big hug.

 

Each Christmas we think or our daughter Josephine who was born still at 36 weeks. We long to hold her tiny body, to caress her soft red hair, and to see the child she would have become. But we feel her presence in our lives each day and know that one day we will see her again.