yesterday was my 2nd thanksgiving without my husband and i can say it doesnt get any easier. i started my day off crying and spent the rest of my day forcing a smile on my face so no one else's day would be ruined. Unfortunately people think that its been long enough and they dont understand it still hurts and i still miss him.

I feel your pain. It was my first Thanksgiving without my Hans too. It was hard. I felt lost without him. Hans always cooked and watched football on TG, so I put on a football game. I didn't spend a minute watching it. Thank God it's over and maybe I'll do better next year.
Vicki

Our first Thanksgiving apart as well. Gary would spend Wednesday baking pies and Thursday early morning he would sit at the kitchen table and talk with me as I got the bird ready for the oven. Wednesday this year did not have that wonderful aroma of pies baking and as I prepared the bird I did it alone and with plenty of tears in my eyes and a heavy ache in my chest. My sister invited us to her house so a couple of the kids and I went down along with the bird. A couple of the boys stayed home and spent a quiet reflective day. We all miss their dad so, so much.
The days certainly aren't getting any easier. Hugs and prayers to all of you.

This was my first Thanksgiving without my husband also--it's not easy, but I managed it better than I thought I would. Most of the kids and grandkids came to the house for Thanksgiving so I was busy cooking and preparing. My daughter and son-in-law and grandkids came on Wednesday to help with preparations and help get the tree and house decorated (something I was having a hard time with)--it looks nice. I broke down a bit when my son said grace before we ate, that was always his dad's job, and I woke up this morning feeling very alone---this was always a fun day for us. I did get through it better than I thought I would though---now if I can just make it through his birthday on the 18th, Christmas, and then New Year's Day which was the day he passed away.
My prayers are with you

I hope all you good people made it through the day okay on your first Thanksgiving without your loved one. It was tough on me in the early part of the day without Joanne. I sent a heartfelt email to my step daughters saying how I missed the hustle and bustle of everyone being home for the holidays and missed the aromas of all the cooking and baking going on. You'd think I'd get a response? No. As the day wore on and I got busy making a Thanksgiving for myself, I did get some relief. What I am most thankful for are the years I got to spend with Joanne. She was not my better half, but my better 3/4's

Thank you for starting this thread, missmygeorge. All of us here probably felt like you--in fact, I didn't have the emotional strength to face DS yesterday. It was the first Thanksgiving without my wife, who died of cancer. I went to the state park where we used to go on Thanksgiving and walked some of the same paths. I asked the wind to carry my voice to her and the river to carry my tears to her. And I gave thanks for the 34 years we had together--it wasn't the 65-70 years together that I had been planning, but she left me plenty of memories. Maybe the grief that surrounds our memories on these "firsts" will gradually fall away.