Written by By C.L. Smith (2017 QDHPCA board member)
The holidays can be a hard time. Shopping, work, parties, credit card bills, in-laws. It all adds up to a mountain of stress and an overwhelming urge to hide under a pillow until New Year’s. It is especially difficult when we have lost a loved one or we are on the verge of losing someone.
If this is your first holidays without your special person, celebrate them. Bake the cookies your mother made every year. I lost my cookie mentor twelve years ago and I still cry into the rum balls.
To be fair, I do drink the rum while I bake.
Share stories with anyone that will listen, like when the nine pack of puppies stole the turkey and barfed it up under the Xmas tree. Have a temper tantrum over hanging Xmas lights, then laugh over the memory of Grandpa telling the neighborhood kids that Rudolf was in the deep freezer.
It’s heart wrenching to know that this is the last holidays you will spend with someone. It means time
with them is drawing to a close but it doesn’t mean that there should be any less of a celebration of the moments you still have.
Hold that loved one close and soak in the view of a snowfall outside. There isn’t a nurse out there that hasn’t witnessed a family curled up in bed with a patient, loving that person from this life into the next.
There is no rule saying the holidays are locked into Dec 24 & 25 to celebrate with them. Maybe do Dec 13 instead. Personally, I think the holidays should be Dec 28 but that’s because I’m cheap and want to take advantage of Boxing Day sales.
The holidays can be a nerve jingling time but it can also be filled with love and happiness. And just think, it’s another 365 days until Santa finds another damn reindeer. So laugh a little, cry a little, and have another rum.... I mean rum ball.