Flashback: Thanksgiving 2011, Part Two

I posted about the majority of our trip in yesterday's blog, but there's more to the story than that. One of the sadder events was that one of Chrissi's aunts was diagnosed as being terminally ill with cancer, and we spent a couple of days as a result visiting her in hospital. Chrissi was naturally quite worried that it would be the last time she'd see her as she was going away (happily she was still going in July when we were out there, and is hanging on in there even now).

This partially contributed, but by no means was the only factor, in Chrissi being rather upset when leaving. As it was her first trip back, it was always going to be the hardest, and leaving again was very difficult for her - and for me to see her so affected by it.

This naturally didn't stop when we got home, and she was down for the first couple of weeks back in the UK. I suspect the weather didn't help too much either - it's a lot easier to be depressed and miserable when the weather matches it! It was a struggle for both of us, and it was difficult for me to be supportive when I couldn't fully understand what was happening - particularly as I had hoped that having gone through this once in March, that it wouldn't be quite so difficult.

Of course, this happens to everyone, and it's perfectly normal - as many of her friends at work told her. I knew this full well, even if I didn't want it to be happening and hoped that it would be easier! The work routine almost certainly helped a lot, forcing her back into just normal day-to-day life, but it was hard in the evenings. It was difficult but it worked out in time as normal day-to-day living just took over and became normal once more.

The other reassuring thing for us is that we knew this time was always going to be the hardest - the first time back, the first time seeing everyone again, feeling that it was still her home. It was always going to be the most difficult, so to get past that is a significant achievement. I'm comfortable about it this year both knowing what to expect, and knowing that it will be easier for both of us knowing what happened last year and with the knowledge that it won't be that bad this time.