Holiday Season Blues.......Doesn't Get Better With Time

“Holidays are time spent with loved ones” is imprinted on today's society. Holidays mark the passage of time in our lives. They are part of the milestones we share with each other and they generally represent time spent with family. They bring meaning to certain days and we bring much meaning back to them.
 But since holidays are for being with those we love the most, how on earth can I be expected to cope with Ashleigh & Patience dying? For me, this is the hardest part of grieving, when I miss them even more than usual. How can I celebrate togetherness when there is none? When you have lost someone special, your world losses its celebratory qualities. Holidays only magnify the loss. The sadness feels sadder and the loneliness goes deeper.
 The need for support is greatest during the holidays. Pretending you don’t hurt and or it is not a harder time of the year is just not the truth for me. If it wasn’t harder then I never really loved my child. I can and will get through the holidays. Rather than avoiding the feelings of grief, lean into it and embrace the tears. It is not the grief I want to avoid, it is the pain. Grief is the way out of the pain. There are a number of ways I have learned to incorporate Ashleigh & Patience and the love I feel into the holidays.

Halloween, Thanksgiving, Ashleigh's Birthday, Christmas, New Years, the Birth of Patience....These are the biggest and usually most challenging of all. I know I can and will get through the Holidays. Grief the internal feelings and mourning my external expressions. I'm Allowed to be sad! These occasions bring up the last time I spent with my daughter. It’s normal to feel sad that this person is no longer with me no matter how long it has been since she passed away. It helps me to take some time out for myself to remember the Ashleigh I loved with all my heart. 


The loss of a loved one turns our life upside down. Our world as we knew it has changed and those changes require that we in turn adjust to a new "normal."

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