Did you ever lose a person around a holiday which made it hard to celebrate?

[6265AT99]

First let me say sorry for your loss.  I too have lost people that were very near and dear to me - a son and a daughter - and no, it doesn't get easier with time - it's just something you have to come to terms with.  I look at it this way, my children were on loan to me from God and he decided when it was time for them to return home and I will surely see them once again.  Good luck and keep your chin up.

[BlackSheepNY]

My baby girl was born stillborn on the day before Thanksgiving, 1992.  On the biggest shopping day of the year (Black Friday) while everyone else started their Christmas shopping, I was shopping for a casket for my daughter.  That's a hurt that will NEVER go away.

I got to spend one more Christmas and New Year with my father before he passed away on January 26th.  It was the saddest Christmas and New Year I've ever had.  Even in his condition before passing, he wanted my sister and I and our husbands to have a wonderful time on New Year's Eve.  He paid for all of us to go out to NYC and have a good time.  We went, but my sister and I did nothing but think of the pending outcome for my father and cried all night long, and our poor husbands couldn't even console us.

[vickysue]

Yes, my mother Dec. 23, 1978. My son Dec.3rd 1980, my other son August 2001. My mother-in-law also in Dec, of 1993. So it is hard to celebrate Christmas the way other people do. I believe we should celebrate the birth of Christ, be with our family's and our Church.

[dauna]

I have lost family members, some of them as far back as over 40 years ago, and though it has gotten "easier" (more or less), it isn't as if holidays are the same.  And this might serve as a lesson to all of us to be sensitive toward those who have a hard time at this time of year; it isn't a holly jolly Christmas for all of us.  Even concentrating on the meaning as opposed to the marketing of the holiday doesn't take away all the pain.

[kqa]

No close family members or friends, but some acquaintances did pass away around the holidays this past season.  An elderly man died on Christmas Eve.  He had only one sibling who was a sister and she also passed away on Christmas Eve a few years ago.  I thought was was so strange.  Another acquaintance passed away on New Year's Day.  Another friend I'd known since the 1960s when we were teenagers died about a week before Christmas.

[nguzman1]

Sorry to hear that, I too lost family members during the holidays I hear you.

[gaylasue]

The next Christmas will be difficult on our family.  My mother-in-law passed away on Dec. 27, 2014.  She is already missed every second of every day.  The holidays will be difficult to adjust to since she would always have a big meal fixed for the family.

[carmexqueen]

I lost my sister 11 days after her son's 7th birthday. It made thanksgiving and Christmas unbearable.  Me and my mama are from a family where we make big holiday meals and decorate Christmas trees and neither of those have actually  happened happened since 2011.

[countrygirl12]

Yeah we lost someone this year but we still celebrated.  It was different and hard and there were periods where there were tears.  But you can't just shut down and never celebrate a holiday you have always celebrated again.  That is just foolish.  And the person who died would not want you to do that anyway.