MEMORIES OF LOVED ONES

None of us can move through a holiday without thinking about the people who have died and are no longer with us. Perhaps it is long enough ago and the pain has been replaced by sweet memories.

For those of you who, like myself, have a friend who has had a special person decease in the last year, then, I am certain, you share their pain with them during the hardest holiday of all, Christmas.

Old Trunks is thinking about her aunt. Harry died on New Years Day. The next Christmas at Grandpa and Grandma's she was there. Some one started playing "Blue Christmas" on the guitar, not knowing about his death. He was simply told, any song but that one.

And Ella, the lady I have written about so much, perished in April. On December 3, her family certainly was thinking about birthdays they had celebrated with her in the past. In 1967, her husband died and she came to Kansas to with her children who lived there. We all agreed to give her a mother's ring. It meant a lot to her. It meant a lot to us. Clarity, Beauty, two dignities, and a strength.

It is this same family that took my Mother and our family under wing when Daddy died at Yuletide in 1981. And Mother, like Ella, came to Kansas that first Christmas after to be with her family.

Today, I am thinking about Ella. and her family. I am thinking about a friend in Kansas; her Dad died this fall. I am thinking about a local friend; her husband perished last spring.

Who knows when we are ready for bling-bling and neon colored lights. When do people jingle after loved ones have deceased? How do they share the miracle of Christ's birth without those special people they have celebrated with for years? We just do.

And, yes, even Old Trunks knows life goes on. And Old Trunks knows that sometimes we are honored to be there to flip that switch and if only for a moment, hear laughter and see joy.

Reach out.

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