Christmas. What happened to Christmas? The tree finally made its way into the house. We had to lop a bit off the top, it was so tall, but it had survived the indignity of being in a net for weeks …
I started writing this post many times over. I even managed more than seven hundred words and then deleted them the next day. When I read over it, the tone was so downbeat; depressing. Who needs that? Thing is, that cloud of gloom – omnipresent – just wouldn’t lift. The weather has played a huge part in that but the news? Bad enough before Keir ‘Jong Un’ but a hundred times worse since! I love Christmas – always have, always will – but even I have struggled to muster the magic this year. The tree looks so lovely, regardless. Becca and I decorated it on the 23rd, allowing a day for the branches to drop. It grew and grew, and grew … like a giant, like this! (inside joke) – as though defiant, its grandeur slighted for all those weeks in a net. In my eyes, it looks positively Austrian! Traditional. No tinsel – no tinsel – just warm white lights, treasured baubles, garlands of beads and strategically placed red bows. Perfect but for one thing, it doesn’t smell. Why is that? That’s part of the charm of a real tree, the smell of pine. No more, then.
Christmas Day was marked with Bucks Fizz, special presents, a delicious vegetable stew accompanied by a 2016 bottle of Cervaro – and a Le Creuset casserole pot which I am still trying to rescue a week later! We battened down the hatches and enjoyed every minute, although missing our butler, Manny, who was in Portugal. Didn’t feel right. Christmas is all about family. Nothing more important …
Family and nostalgia … The Sound of Music. Christmas isn’t Christmas without it. We’ve even watched it in St Wolfgang more than once. Almost adds to its charm, being amidst the actual scenery and the snow-capped mountains. Predictably, the tears were already pouring down our faces, late Sunday afternoon, when my phone rang bringing the awful news that a very dear friend had died suddenly. The shock … Like a kick in the stomach. The tears, now, no longer nostalgic, although I had known him since school; fifteen or sixteen. Always there, he was one of the kindest, most genuine guys you could ever meet. Solid. A man of few words, he had a way of saying it as it is, however! He and his lovely family, such a support to myself, Becca and Manny during the darkest of times. I hadn’t seen him for too long but I was in touch with Alison, exchanging texts over Christmas. Now, he was gone.
I can’t speak about him without crying; I think about his family and their immeasurable pain constantly. Constantly. I cannot imagine how they are coping. They react or reply, briefly, to texts but … That cloud of gloom. Did it herald the shock, the sadness, the cruelty? The anger I now feel? Why? ‘Nothing is forever except forever.’ (Alexandra Fuller) Here, today; gone, tomorrow. We take so much for granted, immersing ourselves in utter trivia, at the end of the day, when the only thing that truly matters is the health and wellbeing of those we love. Nobody is promised tomorrow. Moreover, one’s legacy lies in the memories and the love one leaves behind in the hearts of others. Not a jot to do with money or success. Not a jot! Everything to do with kindness, consideration and how one treats one’s fellow man. My friend was a gentleman in the true sense of the word. No airs, no graces, the salt of the earth. A devoted family man, he loved them to bits, pride emanating from every pore. He was everything good!
There are few I know deserving of such accolades. I didn’t see him often – often enough – but the sadness I feel is acute. He touched my life; touched my heart. From kids to adulthood … The impact of his loss, so young and so sudden, is hard to reconcile, let alone understand. That cloud of gloom seems ever heavier.
Help! Anything but cheery. Apologies? Not really. Sometimes cheery is just too much like hard work. Anyway, I, for one, am thankful 2024 has gone. May 2025 shine brighter for us, all, and remember, don’t sweat the small stuff! Treasure your memories and spend your time making more. After all, they are priceless and all we leave behind.
I decided to look for an uplifting quote …
‘Do one thing every day that scares you.’ Eleanor Roosevelt
Get up! That ought to do it.
This is Trish, signing off.
