To Absent Friends...

To many, the Christmas season is not a time of rejoicing. For them, many of their loved ones are absent and too dearly missed! Without their presence Christmas is not the same... We forget that Christmas is more meaningful when prized people are with us.

When someone loses a loved one it can take a number of Christmases to make the loss more bearable! Christmas can appear to make absence more acute.

I believe that the love we exchange throughout our lives is never lost. Even though a physical presence is no longer their, we still can claim a heritage consisting of memories, experiences and love. These are even more important than material mementos.

I believe that despite the pain of loss, we have a duty to remember those who are no longer with us. What's more, we should do so respecting how they would wish us to remember them. In this way, we honour them and say to them that our lives were really enriched by their personality, goodness and love.

I believe that by remembering them, we still have them as part of lives. I'm pretty sure that absent loved ones would want us to continue to things as best we can!

To absent friends....

Yarm: ...gone or away but never forgotten.