Happy Christmas everyone, or whatever holiday you celebrate!
I have a seasonal eavesdropping to share: about half an hour before most shops shut on Christmas Eve, I was out putting a misplaced bit of post in the letterbox of a house down the road when a young man with a small child in a pushchair (stroller) came around the corner into the street, just in time for me to overhear him saying "Oh no! That was Mummy's Christmas present!" I looked up and noticed that the child was VERY chocolate-y, and grinning, with their hand shoved in a ripped-open bag from a rather expensive chocolatier. He sort of slumped, and turned around to trudge back into town...
And this post is a convenient space in case anyone wants to chat or share - Christmas can be both wonderful and very hard at the same time. I'm here alone because of a) my own issues, b) my Mum has bruised a rib, c) they've both been on antibiotics for a couple of weeks for tooth problems and are feeling very un-Christmassy and d) my Dad had a root canal yesterday - so basically they're having a very quiet, minimal decorations, soup and the Christmas Cheese, kind of Christmas, and will do something more celebratory in a couple of months. I LIKE being alone, but... Christmas is both wonderful and very hard.
I hope the day turned out more wonderful than hard. At any rate, now it's over for another year. I hope your parents will feel better soon. It's been a strange one for me, too.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the lovely overheard moment!
ReplyDeleteSending good thoughts to everyone for some peaceful days and quick recoveries from illness and very importantly, some rest!
I hoped there would be more conversation here so this wouldn't be such a noticeable announcement, but I'd rather get it over now than let it hang till the next session, or never mention it at all, which would also seem weird. My father died a couple of days before Christmas. Since I was ill myself, it still seems like a fever dream, but it was real. (I'm doing better, but symptoms do hang on.) Anyway, that's why the holidays are strange this year.
ReplyDeleteOh dear Eleanor, so sorry to hear about your father. I hope that you get some comfort from your recent visit and time spent with him. Sending you strength and good thoughts for this difficult time... May his memory be a blessing.
DeleteI'm so sorry to hear that. I hope you have good memories mixed with all the complex feelings, and that your recent visit was a comfort to you both. Sending positive thoughts - illness and bereavement combined with a major holiday must be such a discombobulating mixture...
DeleteSending peace your way, Dame E.
DeleteThank you. It is a comfort that I saw him so recently, and "discombobulating" sums it up perfectly. I long for some recombobulation!
DeleteI'm so sorry. It is good that you were able to visit recently. What a thing to have to go through right now.
DeleteAnother eavesdropping - I was woken just before 2am on New Year's by drunken revellers, but they'd decided they needed to sing "Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birth-day twenty twenty three, Happy Birthday to you". I hope that encourages the year to be a little less dramatically incident-packed!
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