I've been talking to my friend over lunch. Today is the anniversary of her dad dying asnd we have a wee toast in between mouthfuls of haggis pakora. today is also the anniversary of my grandpa dying (in 1989, but feels like yesterday). My friend's uncle (whose daughters, my friend's cousins, are also good friends of mine) is probably going to die this week.

The morbidity ends here though.

we were thinking that it's never a good time to have to mark an anniversary of a loved one, and while the forced jollity of christmas can feel crass and incongruous when you're still raw from grieving, it can however give you an opportunity to think of happy memories of those missed loved ones, and things that they used to do at xmas time.

I have a wonderful photo of my grandpa one christmas where (like me) he is wearing an eye patch and (unlike me) tucking into a mincepie FOIL AND ALL. His christams cracker hat is all torn and lopsided and he has bread sauce down his front <3 He was a wrong un and I loved him so much.

Anyway, possibly tl;dr. If you have recently lost somebody, I appreciate this is maybe not the thread to be in, and I sincerely hope it hasn't upset you.

If however you have a memory of a loved one that you won't be seeing this xmas and don't mind sharing it, this is the place.