Thurles Information

Christmas is often wrapped in the idea of togetherness; that familiar chair at the table; those “same as always” routines, those comforting little repetitions that once kept a home feel steady.
When someone you love is no longer there, the season can suddenly feel out of tune. Carols can seem too bright, laughter can land too sharply, and even the smallest decoration can become a soft, relentless reminder of what’s really missing.

Grief has always had its own calendar.
Special dates have a way of drawing it back to the surface, the first Christmas without them, the first time your mouth forms their name before you remember, the first moment you realise you’re holding a memory where a person used to be. If it feels like you’re slipping backwards, it may simply be your heart meeting an anniversary it never asked for, and remembering same in vivid colour.

A Living Love.

Lyrics and Vocals: Tammy Wynette and George Jones.

Sadly grief does not take instructions.
If Christmas feels lonely, that loneliness is not evidence that you’re failing. It’s evidence that you loved, deeply, properly, and with your whole self. The world can insist that Christmas is supposed to be the most wonderful time of each year, but grief doesn’t take instructions. Sometimes the bravest thing you can do is to tell the truth, but is hurts to express what is real, without apology.

You may heal with time, but the scaring never disappears.
If comfort comes, it often arrives in gentler shapes than we expect. Keep plans simple. Let people help in practical ways. Speak their name out loud if you want to. Light a candle, hang a decoration for them, place a photo where you’ll see it, or tell one story that makes everyone smile and ache at the same time. These aren’t ways of “moving on”, they’re ways of carrying love forward, and making room for the person or persons who still matter.

So if Christmas feels lonely this year, be sympathetic with yourself. Take each day in smaller pieces. Let grief come and go like weather. Your loved one may be absent from the living room, but not from the meaning of your life, and even in the quietest house, love still has a presence.

Merry Christmas To Me.

Lyrics and Vocals: American non-traditional country music singer/songwriter Alan Jackson.

Merry Christmas To Me.

Merry Christmas To Me.

Today I took some paper from the closet,
And wrapped the wedding ring you left behind,
And I addressed it to the man who vowed to love you,
And on the little card, I wrote these words inside.

Chorus.
Merry Christmas to me,
Just one gift beneath my tree,
For the fool who let you leave,
Merry Christmas to me.

Then I sat down in my chair and thought about you,
About the many reasons why you’re gone,
And I opened up the present that I gave to me,
And realized how much it hurts to be alone.

Chorus.

I’m the fool who let you leave,
Merry Christmas to me.

END