鈥淚鈥檒l have a blue Christmas without you

I鈥檒l be so blue just thinking about you

Decorations of red on a green Christmas tree

Won鈥檛 be the same dear, if you鈥檙e not here with me鈥�

***

That song, co-written by Billy Hayes and Jay W. Johnson, and made famous by Elvis Presley, has a deeper meaning for anyone who has ever celebrated a Christmas without someone they love.

Here in the Comox Valley, such lyrics touch a higher percentage of the population than in many communities, for a couple of reasons.

First, being a military community, there are many families who will be separated this Christmas. Celebrations will be hollow, as civilian spouses, and children, will undoubtedly spend much of the holidays thinking about their deployed husband or wife, mother or father.

They will hope, as do we all, for a safe return home, and maybe next Christmas the family will be as one.

For others, this Christmas will produce a less hopeful feeling.

For those who have lost someone dear to them this year, the Christmas season will be a struggle; and with our community鈥檚 demographics, it is safe to assume that this Christmas season will be a struggle for many in the Comox Valley.

And while the first Christmas is always the toughest, for many, it takes years for the Christmas season to evoke anything other than feelings of sadness, especially when the source of the sadness involves someone who died close to Christmas Day.

So when you see someone during your travels this Christmas season, and they don鈥檛 acknowledge your greeting, or don鈥檛 return your smile as you pass them on the street, don鈥檛 automatically assume they are simply a 鈥楪rinch.鈥� They could be, and likely are, suffering inside.

Rather than mumble under your own breath, simply wish them well, and hope that the sincerity of your greeting will help brighten, even for a moment, what could be an extremely dark time.

If you are celebrating this Christmas, enjoy.

If you are mourning this Christmas, we offer our sympathies, and hope next Christmas will be easier for you.

-Adapted from an earlier editorial