It gets harder…

It gets harder, everyday, to say goodbye…

And it’s the ordinary, the everyday that makes it so.

Today, I saw a couple engaged in conversation, so absorbed in each other that they were oblivious to all that was around – we were like that too.

Today, I felt the nip in the air and the coldness of a dog’s wet nose and I laughed and turned to share.  Did you know?

Today, as I made my morning cup of tea and fetched the paper and planned the day, I wondered what you’d make of it.  This is what we used to do.

Today, I sat with the team and proofed the Advent Booklet and tried to be as meticulous as you taught me how.  We worked together the very same way – grappling with space and layout, floating ideas, feeling the same triumph when the light bulb clicked!

Today, was the first day I turned on the Christmas carols while I worked at the computer.  Softly, so as not to disturb the neighbours just like you said.  How you loved this season.

And today, I started on my crochet decorations.  Red, white and green.  And I imagined that impish grin on your face as you delighted in the expectation of the bounty from yarn and hook.

Soon it will be the first day of Advent and the first recitation of the Christmas novena.  You used to keep count for the fifteen repeats.  Now, I will use my rosary beads.

And when the year comes to an end, I’ll play Auld Lang Syne at midnight just for you.