Sending love and strength to you

Many of us have had a very difficult year.

And then over these Christmas holidays we were sent challenges which we wondered if we could bear.

I’ve seen that many of you have suffered losses over the year. Some of you are still recovering from trauma, grief and challenges that religious people say God would never send your way unless he knew you could handle them.

On Christmas Eve, my family suffered the death of a close family member. ?We knew that Christmas Day would go ahead, as we needed to be there for my Dad and the loss of his little sister.

We were not sure whether our traditional Boxing Day would go ahead though. After all, surely the children and grandchildren of that very special, slightly bonkers and wonderful lady, who we all love dearly, would be unable to meet with us. How could they? It being so raw.

But then word came that they wanted to meet. They wanted to be with us, as much as we wanted to embrace and hold them. And I can’t tell you how special that day felt, being together, holding each other, talking through what people found comfort from. Given we’d suffered a death, it was a special Christmas after all.

And then just yesterday, my Dad was rushed into hospital. So serious was it, that we all made the dash to see him before we might lose him.

And as is often the case with my Dad, by the time we’d made the journey, he was reading the name badges of the people giving him IV fluids, as well as the coffee crew.

“Oh Yvonne, a black coffee with no sugar, no milk and maybe a splash of cold water, would be wonderful.”

“Oh Barbara, you need to move us from this bay to the corridor? ?Well, I can see that others are not as healthy as me, so you do what you need to do.”

And so it went on. ?He’s now reasonably stable, but it seems that side effects of medications can sometimes be as difficult to deal with as whatever the original thing had been (sepsis).

So, today I’m simply sending you love and strength, because I know that many of us have had a challenging year. ?And a challenging Christmas break.

And I want to say that whatever lies ahead, we will get through it together.