Christmas Eve
Let me sum up what Christmas Eve means to the Colhoun-Wassinger family:
12/24/01 Liam's body is found but the family isn't notified until 12/26/01. Merry Christmas to us. On 12/25/01 I knew he was coming home, though I didn't know if he would be alive or dead. I was strangely peaceful that day.
12/24/05 While attending Christmas Eve mass with MIL #1 at St. Anselm's RC Church, I miscarried. By midnight that night, I had run to the bathroom about a dozen times and seen my hopes of another child disappear.
12/24/06 After a lovely evening at MIL # 1's house, my dad walked down the stairs, into the car and proceeded to go into massive cardiac arrest. He ended up with traumatic brain injury due to lack of oxygen and died a month later from pneumonia.
Thus, we don't much care for Christmas Eve around here. This evening, Schmedley, previously referred to as brother-in-law #1, and his family are not gracing his mother's house with their presence. His wife, who apparently has him by the balls, refuses to be social. Let's just say she has issues. He's in a tough place and he has my sympathy. He also needs to reach down like he has a pair and step up and stay in touch with his dead brother's family. I'm not stressing over it anymore. It is their choice and their problem. I only hope that the cousins will connect when they are older.
But this year, this Christmas Eve, things are already better. I have a friend, who if I could have had a sibling, he would be it. He is my brother in so many ways and I love him with all my heart. This year, after not seeing him for more than a decade, I got to hold him in my arms in the middle of the street, just like it was yesterday, just like when we were kids. And my kid met his kids. And suddenly, certain pieces of my Universe moved into their proper place and when I looked in the rearview mirror, I saw a woman I hadn't seen in a very long time.
Peace, you all, and Merry Christmas.
12/24/01 Liam's body is found but the family isn't notified until 12/26/01. Merry Christmas to us. On 12/25/01 I knew he was coming home, though I didn't know if he would be alive or dead. I was strangely peaceful that day.
12/24/05 While attending Christmas Eve mass with MIL #1 at St. Anselm's RC Church, I miscarried. By midnight that night, I had run to the bathroom about a dozen times and seen my hopes of another child disappear.
12/24/06 After a lovely evening at MIL # 1's house, my dad walked down the stairs, into the car and proceeded to go into massive cardiac arrest. He ended up with traumatic brain injury due to lack of oxygen and died a month later from pneumonia.
Thus, we don't much care for Christmas Eve around here. This evening, Schmedley, previously referred to as brother-in-law #1, and his family are not gracing his mother's house with their presence. His wife, who apparently has him by the balls, refuses to be social. Let's just say she has issues. He's in a tough place and he has my sympathy. He also needs to reach down like he has a pair and step up and stay in touch with his dead brother's family. I'm not stressing over it anymore. It is their choice and their problem. I only hope that the cousins will connect when they are older.
But this year, this Christmas Eve, things are already better. I have a friend, who if I could have had a sibling, he would be it. He is my brother in so many ways and I love him with all my heart. This year, after not seeing him for more than a decade, I got to hold him in my arms in the middle of the street, just like it was yesterday, just like when we were kids. And my kid met his kids. And suddenly, certain pieces of my Universe moved into their proper place and when I looked in the rearview mirror, I saw a woman I hadn't seen in a very long time.
Peace, you all, and Merry Christmas.