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Thu 12 Dec, 2002 10:39 am
What was your saddest Christmas ever? (or Hanukkah)
Xmas 1966.
I was a child. On Dec. 22 my father had a very bad car accident. He was on intensive care at the hospital and we all were afraid he might die.
He lived until 1991.
My 5-month-old brother died on Xmas morning when I was 8. My grandfather died on Xmas Eve (having been bedridden since his stroke the day before Thanksgiving) during my first year of college.
This Xmas is going to be up there, too -- spent with my gf's mother, whose husband died in October and who will likely lose her job before the end of the year (not, in itself, a bad thing, if she is able to work from home, on her own terms).
fbaezer: I'm so glad he lived, and for so long. You are lucky!
patiodog: My condolences on your losses. How sad and at such important, impressionable times in your life.
Christmas '94, my sweetheart died of cancer after suffering for a year. Frazzled and worn with grief, I had to shop for a dress for his funeral during the New Year's Eve shopping crunch.
dupre -
thanks, and similar condolences. life can hand out awful ironies sometimes...
It is the loss of loved ones, the personal tragedies, the accidents, the grave illnesses, that mark the truly worst of holiday experiences.
By contrast my worst Christmas (somebody broke in and stole all the gifts on Dec. 26th 1979) is no big deal.
It's the people, not the 'stuff', that's important.
The Christmas after my father died in 1986 was the worst. This Christmas is a tough one as well because I just recently lost my best friend of 25 years to breast cancer.
1969, sitting on a bunker
In Quan Loi, Viet Nam
(heh, at least
Was in the rear-rear).
Had some really bad weed,
Have never ever
Got over the regression-depression.
Except - I cope!
gezzy: I'm so sorry for your loss. My best friend just suffered two heart attacks. My God, if I had lost her!
You guys all make me count my blessings for a calm, safe holiday season. I have so much to celebrate these days! Thank you for sharing.
BillW: Glad you are here with us. From what I hear, those days in Nam--are the days remembering them--are the worst.
dupre, thanks for your thoughts.
And we should all be thankful that most of our holidays have been different.
They were the worst of days,
They were the best of days,
Thanks dupre for your sentiment!
Dupre
Thanks so much and I'm so glad to hear that your friend made it through ok. My friend was only 38 years old and we grew up together. Makes me treasure the people I love even more.
In my grieving I came here and talked a lot about my sadness and everyone here was so comforting. I am so glad that I had my friends here to lean on when I needed it the most and will always remember that.
Thanks again.
BillW
I can't even imagine what you went through over there and what you still have to live with.
My thoughts are with you.
Thanks gezzy, it is some 33 years and as the phycologist said at the Vet hospital, I have coping mechanisms in place, for this I have my Higher Power to thank!
I truly feel your hurt, yours is near and dear. This too will pass, but her memory will never fade! This I promise, if you let it be.
To forget is to hide, to remember is to rejoice. Today we greave, in the future-it will be our saving grace. May you always walk in the light!
Thanks so much BillW. I would never let myself forget her. She will live in my heart forever and one day when the grieving stage is over, it will be much easier when I think about her. What you said was beautiful and it means a lot to me.
Thanks again :-)
I spent a couple xmases alone. One upon just moving to Santa Fe - had my roomies, but no other friends. They had made some friends. A package from my family had gone to the wrong house. So, on my birthday, just before xmas, I walked door to door just in case I might find it - and I did!
A more dismal holiday was in athens, GA. The second xmas there, my s.o. and I had just broken up, I had no way to get home. I was living in an apt that was being used as a storage area. And, I was very sick. Again, hadn't really made any friends in that first year.
Thanks BillW.
Yours and the other tales on this thread make my xmases past look cheery.
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