Cold weather, snow men, hot chocolate and bright colorful lights. Christmas time was easily my favorite time of year throughout my childhood and even throughout a portion of my teens. It was a time when all the little problems seemed to just melt away as quickly as the top of a candy cane. Every year, Christmas would be split for me and my immediate family visiting both my father’s family as well as my mother’s on Christmas eve and Christmas day respectively. My family like a lot of others is in no way perfect and I cannot remember a time (especially on my father’s side) when there wasn’t some form of issue between at least two of us at any given time but always around Christmas none of that seemed to matter. This all changed though,
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Let’s start with my father’s side. On Christmas Eve for my entire life the entirety of my father’s family got together for a serious feast. It was always held at my grandparents’ house and my grandmother was an unbelievable cook. The air was always thick with the aroma of stuffing and gravy and the spread stretched so far that every family member would be able to eat until they popped. Now, my grandmother has easily been one of the most important people in my life, taking care of me while my parents worked full time throughout my childhood. She’s no saint but she has done so much for me whether it was teaching me how to ride a bicycle, picking me up after every fall and dressing every scraped knee or nursing me back to health with a hot bowl of soup while I was sick in bed. My grandmother is easily one of the most caring people I have ever met and I love her more than I could possibly put into words here. Now my grandfather on the other hand? That’s a completely different story. My grandfather to put it kindly was a vile man. He was an abusive alcoholic with more demons than I could begin to state here. There was a darkness that followed this man wherever he went and a certain heaviness that he brought into the room anytime he entered. Around Christmas time he was mainly avoided as he sat in his favorite arm chair with his choice of highly alcoholic beverage and he had enough decency most of the …show more content…
My grandfather, Lawrence, died in 2014 and it was truly the antithesis of my previous grieving experience. He was someone that represented something positive in my life rather than something so blatantly negative and as hard as I had taken it I know that my mother and her sister had taken it much harder. The glow that followed my mother had faded for quite some time as she grieved the loss of her father. That Christmas was once again the total opposite of my previous experience. It felt like something was absolutely missing and I know we all felt it. We all attempted to stay positive and have an enjoyable time for everyone else but there was no denying that we all felt his
Let’s start with my father’s side. On Christmas Eve for my entire life the entirety of my father’s family got together for a serious feast. It was always held at my grandparents’ house and my grandmother was an unbelievable cook. The air was always thick with the aroma of stuffing and gravy and the spread stretched so far that every family member would be able to eat until they popped. Now, my grandmother has easily been one of the most important people in my life, taking care of me while my parents worked full time throughout my childhood. She’s no saint but she has done so much for me whether it was teaching me how to ride a bicycle, picking me up after every fall and dressing every scraped knee or nursing me back to health with a hot bowl of soup while I was sick in bed. My grandmother is easily one of the most caring people I have ever met and I love her more than I could possibly put into words here. Now my grandfather on the other hand? That’s a completely different story. My grandfather to put it kindly was a vile man. He was an abusive alcoholic with more demons than I could begin to state here. There was a darkness that followed this man wherever he went and a certain heaviness that he brought into the room anytime he entered. Around Christmas time he was mainly avoided as he sat in his favorite arm chair with his choice of highly alcoholic beverage and he had enough decency most of the …show more content…
My grandfather, Lawrence, died in 2014 and it was truly the antithesis of my previous grieving experience. He was someone that represented something positive in my life rather than something so blatantly negative and as hard as I had taken it I know that my mother and her sister had taken it much harder. The glow that followed my mother had faded for quite some time as she grieved the loss of her father. That Christmas was once again the total opposite of my previous experience. It felt like something was absolutely missing and I know we all felt it. We all attempted to stay positive and have an enjoyable time for everyone else but there was no denying that we all felt his