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Marianne Sciucco
a book bubble about
Christmas at Blue Hydrangeas
Literature & Fiction
Author Insight
Grief at the Holidays
The holiday season is touted as "the most wonderful time of the year." For those of us enduring the loss of loved ones, the holidays may be a blunt reminder of that loss, overshadowing the joy we're expected to feel. It's difficult to overcome this grief. In "Christmas at Blue Hydrangeas" there's an underlying theme of loss and grief. The three women at the heart of the story have all lost someone dear: Sara, her daughter, Lisa; Ann, her parents; and Ellie, her husband, Danny. When I started writing this story it was not my intention to have so many grief stricken characters, but I guess it was inevitable because we already knew in "Blue Hydrangeas" that Jack and Sara had lost Lisa, and Anne had lost her parents. The character of Ellie was a single mom in 1978, and I chose to make her a widow rather than unmarried or divorced to add drama and tension. Thus, the three characters grappling with grief. It's not uncommon for many at a holiday gathering to be experiencing some sort of heartbreak. How we manage it is an individual matter and there is no right way. In this scene, Sara counsels the younger Ellie on grief, and how to handle those who advise her to "snap out of it."
Book Excerpt
Christmas at Blue Hydrangeas
Ellie helped Sara make the final preparations for dinner while Jack, David, and Anne went to the living room with the tired children, watching over them as they lay down for a nap by the Christmas tree, covered in one of Emily's hand-knit afghans.
"Everything smells so good," Ellie said as Sara popped the ham into the oven. The scalloped potatoes, buttered carrots, and Brussels sprouts waited on the counter for their turn in the heat. "You must have been cooking for days."
Sara smiled. "I love to cook. It keeps me sane."
"It's therapeutic," Ellie agreed. "When Danny died, I baked for a week. Chocolate chip cookies, layer cakes, banana bread. I had so much food I had to give it away."
They laughed.
"But it just distracted me from the pain. When I ran out of ingredients, I fell apart."
Sara took her hand. "That's understandable. You were in shock. Now, I'm not going to tell you it will get a little better each day, or some other pabulum. It may not. But with time you will move forward, away from the pain. You'll have your new baby, and perhaps a new home and job to look forward to. You'll never forget Danny. You'll always love him. But you'll spend more time thinking of the happy times you had together, and not the sadness."
"Thank you. No one has told me that. Everyone keeps telling me to snap out of my grief, but I just can't."
"No one can. You take as much time as you need. It isn't anybody else's business. Take care of yourself and the children and live one day at a time."
Ellie pulled a tissue out of her sleeve and wiped away her tears.
"Why don't we see what everyone else is doing? Dinner will be ready soon," Sara said. They left the kitchen, leaving behind the day's melancholy.
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