Sometimes, It's Hard To Be Thankful

The Holiday season has arrived, rung in by Thanksgiving Day!

    Every year I look forward to this time of year. The anticipation of whether or not the snow will come, that is if it hasn't come already. The arrival of family and close friends. The smell of the Turkey, and my favorite, the stuffing! But most of all, listing off all the things that I am truly thankful for, and praising God for each and everyone of them

   To be honest however, I wasn't entirely sure I was looking forward to Thanksgiving this year, or that I'd even have anything, in my heart, to be thankful for. You see, the Saturday before Thanksgiving, my Aunt, Angela. C. Jannuzzi passed away after a long and difficult battle with a rare and severe form of Breast Cancer. That Monday and Tuesday were taken up with the viewing and funeral. Wednesday, I wasn't even sure I felt like going to church, let alone preparing for another Thanksgiving! But I pushed through.

   Thoughts and memories of all the amazing times we'd shared together flooded my mind. Making wish lists for Christmas, laughing with her over my little cousin's antics. Days at the malls, summers at the beach, falls in the park, and winters sledding. They made me sad to remember, yet happy to have had. And then I realized what I had to be thankful for!

   I was thankful that she was my Aunt, a wonderful, kind, loving, and selfless person. I was thankful that God gave her a son, my younger cousin. I was thankful that her suffering was over. But most of all, I was thankful for the twenty-one years I had been able to know her. I was thankful for all the times we'd shared together and I was thankful for the memories.

   Thanksgiving Day came and went with many blessings and many more things to be thankful for. We celebrated the birthdays of my cousin, 10 and fiancee, 22 . Though  it had it's hard moments, over all, it was a blessed and enjoyable day. That is how my Aunt would have wanted it. And for that I am thankful.

In loving memory of 

Angela C. Jannuzzi

 Rest In Peace