My holidays were thrown into a topsy-turvy when my grandmother died just four days before Christmas. The last two days of shopping had an undertow of concern for my father, who had already been caring for her as the final phases of Alzheimer’s settled in. The joys of Christmas Eve and Day were succeeded by the lamentations of the casket viewing, funeral, and wake. Dad summed up this wacky calendar best: sad-sad-happy-happy-sad-sad. Lots of emotional gear-shifting.
