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| Niño and Niña 24 December 2024 |
All the lonely people
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong?
Eleanor Rigby – The Beatles
I don’t remember the first 7 Christmas Eves of my life but I do remember in great detail the one in 1950 when I was 8. After that all my Christmas Eves I spent with family and or friends. I was never alone.
In Latin America and in Spain Christmas Eve is far more important than Christmas Day. We would go to Misa de Gallo (Midnight Mass) and we could not open presents until we returned home. Midnight Masses seemed to be eternally long because of that anticipation at what would be under the tree.
With Rosemary we would always cook Christmas Eve dinner. I would do the roast beef with potatoes, onions and carrots. Very importantly I was assigned the task of making the gravy to accompany Rosemary’s stellar Yorkshire Pudding. After her death on 9 December 2020 that tradition ceased.
Since then Christmas dinners (no more on Christmas Eve) have been a troubling and sad experience for me.
In my 82 year existence Christmas Eve 2024 is the first that I have had alone. Such was my melancholy that I turned off the lights at 9pm and enjoyed the affectionate company of my two cats.
