Christmas was going to come whether any of us wanted it to or not. Not even 4 weeks after my Mom passed away, Christmas Day arrived.
The days and weeks since my Mom passed away have been very hard, painful, stressful, and more, but I think we were all dreading Christmas Day the most – My Mom was Christmas Day.
There was something missing.
An empty seat on the couch.
One less present under the tree.
Stockings filled with Love for the kids from My Mom.
One less chair we had to find. Oh, what I would have given to have to struggle to find one more chair so that my Mom could sit at that table with us.
But, all in all, Christmas was not as bad as we expected it to be…maybe because we had a house full of kids who lit up the room. When it was time to exchange gifts, my Dad instructed all the kids to go outside, leaving my sisters and I alone in the room.
One minute later, Stephanie’s boys walked in and handed her a gift.
One minute later, my kids came in and handed me a gift.
Jenny’s kids came in and handed her a gift.
Mel then handed Betsy a gift.
What was this gift?
A single red rose with pine wrapped in a ribbon.
With a card that read,”Merry Christmas, From Mom”.
(Betsy’s said, “Merry Christmas, From Mimi.”)
In all the grief my Dad is feeling, he made these gifts for us because he knows my Mom would have wanted him to. He knows my Mom would still want us to enjoy Christmas and have smiles on our faces.
Even though we all burst into tears, it was the best Christmas gift I have ever received.
Thank you Dad.
Thank you Mom.
Katie
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More tears…this is beautiful. Thank you for writing it.
Sometimes we need tears to clear up our view….Big Hugs.
Awww…how sweet of him. This was my second Christmas without my aunt who was my second mom. I keep feeling like I should be over her death but at times it still hits me like a sack of rocks because she helped raised me. I’m hoping that next Christmas, I can find some way to honor her and the good memories I have of her like your dad did for you all with your mom.
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[…] flowers to her several times a week and visits her everyday. And now, my Dad has started a new Christmas Tradition. If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the RSS feed to have […]
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I’m glad that Christmas wasn’t quite as bad as you had anticipated. The first holidays after a loss are always hard, and especially so when you only just lost your mom and everyone is still in shock. What a sweet way for your dad to memorialize your mom, that choked me up.
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