Happy Holidays??

Brightly colored lights. Wrapping paper and gifts. Manger scenes, complete with live animals. Egg Nog and butter cookies. Yeah, it’s that time of year again and who couldn’t enjoy the Christmas season? Well, someone who has just lost a loved one, that’s who.

While we don’t like to think about it, death takes no holidays or vacations. That means someone you care deeply for could pass away on Thanksgiving, Easter, your birthday, or even Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. And all the mall Santas in the Roanoke Valley would be hard pressed to put a smile back on your face.

Nobody is more conscious of this than I am. My mom was diagnosed with cancer just two weeks before Christmas in 1980. She passed away three months later. I’ll never forget being in Roanoke Memorial Hospital (pre-Carilion days) with my family in the small chapel there as we received the bad news that my mom’s disease was inoperable. I actually kicked and busted a window out of sheer madness at the hospital. Having to endure Christmas that year was horrible. I didn’t want to listen to any Christmas carols or even think about what the day was about. I was lost in my own cloud of sadness and hopelessness.

So I have a pretty good idea of how families feel as they wander into our funeral homes to make arrangements for their husbands, wives, sons, or daughters. No amount of kindness or compassion is going to translate into a “happy holiday” for these poor souls. As is our goal throughout the year, we can only try to make a tough time a bit easier for families. And understand their lives have changed drastically during what is supposed to be “the most wonderful time of the year.”