Member-only story
A Blue Christmas
On Saturday December 21st, my wife, Barbara, and I were shopping when we heard Elvis Presley’s 1957 song “Blue Christmas” (written by Billy Hayes and Jay W. Johnson) play through the store’s sound system. Naturally, I silently sang along with “The King” as he described what his holiday would be like without the girl he loved. On the very next day, we experienced another type of Blue Christmas only this one took place at a local church.
If you’ve never heard of a “Blue Christmas Service,” you’re probably not alone. This special service is designed for those who have lost a loved one, and it’s intended to help the survivors get through the holidays, days when most of society is celebrating.
Barbara and I had never heard of this service until last year, approximately three years after we lost our daughter Maria, at age 30, to cancer. Since then, the Christmas season had become especially sad because Maria’s birthday was on December 21st and because Christmas Day 2015 was the day we rushed her to the hospital, and she never came home; she died in a Hospice wing a month later.
After Maria’s passing, we tried to carry on with our lives, and we did so without the benefit of a formal support group. I guess we weren’t quite ready to share our grief as we tried to get through that first full year without her, the year that everyone says is “the most difficult.” Many people…
