If you’ve seen my Christmas tree in the background of photos this Christmas of Lillian, my granddaughter, you may have noticed that it is bare except for lights and the angel. I decorated as much as I could for Christmas this year; I wanted to be dedicated to celebrating the birth of Jesus despite my sadness and longing for it to be different this year. The ornaments, though…

One peek inside the ornament box, beautiful hanging memories tucked away every year, safely prepared for the next, exposed ornaments that my husband had bought for me over the years we were together. I put up the tree, turned on the lights, and pulled the angel from the top of the box, which we usually put on last. All of that was challenging but I did it. And then I began to unwrap ornaments to place on the tree…and promptly fell apart, another moment of the carefully glued together pieces falling apart again, memories scattered on the floor all around me at my feet. Once again, the angel was the last thing I placed on the tree; this time she is alone.

This is a process of rebuilding and falling apart, constantly. Last night I went to see Suwannee Lights with Luke, Patrice, and Lillian. I was overjoyed to see how excited she was and how rapt her attention was on each new display. She barely stopped bouncing, babbling, and shrieking with joy all night. My kids didn’t stop smiling, ear-to-ear, at the thrill of watching her experience this newest “first.” It was beautiful. And then we reached the display for the armed forces. I was fine until we got to the Air Force tribute and the man, in full dress uniform, accepting donations for the Wounded Warrior Project. We stopped and Lillian put money in his basket while I fought back tears, yet again. Oh, how Scott would have LOVED seeing her love this and seeing our other beautiful granddaughter. (You don’t see much about Emery on my posts because I have only seen pictures of her on Facebook. I also don’t share her photos with you because I don’t feel like I should share them, out of respect for her parents, until hopefully one day I have permission to do so. Death brings hurt, loss, and separation in ways we don’t expect before it happens.)

I recovered fairly quickly to keep from putting a damper on their enjoyment but a void keeps the broken parts from jumping back together on their own. They have to be actively put back together again, each time, like a puzzle that has been scattered. To replace them as part of a whole picture, you have to take them, piece by piece, and find the spot where they belong. That is time-consuming but necessary and, eventually, worthwhile.

I’ve learned to accept the things that I just cannot do as necessary baby steps that support my own healing in slow motion instead of failures to “fix” this, like not having ornaments on my tree. I know that one day I will be able to do it but I acknowledge that, for today, it is okay not to. This is part of my process and may not be part of everyone’s. That’s okay, too. Some people cannot live in the same home they did with the person they loved because it brings pain, for me it brings comfort to be surrounded by our day-to-day life. It’s a juxtaposition to the situation with the tree and that doesn’t make sense, maybe, but that’s okay, too.

𝙉𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙢𝙖𝙠𝙚𝙨 𝙜𝙤𝙤𝙙 𝙨𝙚𝙣𝙨𝙚 𝙞𝙣 𝙜𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙛 ᴀɴᴅ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ɪs ᴏᴋᴀʏ. ♥️