Losing Loved Ones at Christmas

Not everything that happens at Christmastime is happy and festive. There are times when even sadness occurs. Some people go through trying times like losing a job, a business, having no money spend for the holidays, losing a home, losing a beloved pet, and the most painful of all: losing a loved one, particularly a family member. This paints a contradicting scene for the Yuletide season: a bereaving family set against a sea of happy and rejoicing people.

It is a painful thought for the Christmas season but it is true: there are those families who unfortunately, lose a family member at the most joyous time of the year. There are a rare some who also lose part of their family at Christmas eve. What a way to spend Christmas, indeed!

I’ve seen a lot of people who spend Christmas in hospitals. It’s not a happy atmosphere. Ironically, the pediatrics ward is one of the most-occupied during Christmas. Because of the cold weather, a lot of these kids contract respiratory infections and diseases from their playmates and classmates. Parents are frazzled trying to find resources to pay hospital and medicine bills while cheering up their children who are in pain.

Then we have the people who are intensive care. Most of them are unconscious and it’s a painful sight to see weary watchers, family members, and significant others who’re hoping that they will get well soon. Nurses’ stations may be adorned with some Christmas decor, but is just isn’t enough to liven up disenchanted spirits.

Another depressing scene during the Christmas season are bed-ridden people — the former hospital patients who have withdrawn from clinical intervention and opted for home care instead. Some live through their long ordeal in home care, but most eventually succumb to the disease that they bravely fought. It’s their unexpected passing during Christmastime that makes things anguishing for the family they left behind.

These people need blessings in their lives — those who are in serious illness during the Yuletide season and those who are bereaving. During the holiday season, they need less of the gifts and traditions and more company and understanding from the people around them. Life is not that festive for them and they need a backbone to get off from where they have fallen. Some comfort and the feeling that they have people to lean on to should they feel like they can hold on no more are more significant gifts. Lastly, they will need the urging and guidance of people close to them when they don’t know what they are doing and are being unrealistic and unrational. Bereaving individuals have this tendency, which can be heightened when their environment is different from what they are feeling.

Life can really be depressing when one should be happy and celebrating, but always and definitely  there is light and life at the end of the tunnel.