All Comments on 'The Loneliest Time of the Year'

Lovely story that made shed a few tears! Thanks.

5

Beautifully written. Especially the ending realizing his dead wife was the one to get them together. I'm happy Angela found her someone and a child to give and receive unconditional love

superb

Merry Christmas to all. Ronde gives us Erica and Angela to make sure we feel the spirit of this wonderful holiday season. This

Great story. Thank you.

Beautiful, a true spirit of Christmas. Happy thanksgiving and a merry Christmas ahead.

Nice story and very thought provoking.

Exactly what I expect from you....a great story!

Wow, thank you for this story. Easily five stars!

Nice. Lonely people finding each other through the wisdom of a child. Well done. My eyes are dry now, but they weren’t as I read. Thank you for a beautiful story. 5 stars. This gets shared with the love of my life.

You're a master of these lovely stories. Another beautiful, gentle story about ordinary people. Well done and thank you. Again.

Excellent!

Thank you!

Great Christmas story 5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

sorry but the daughters were like a Chekov's gun. Why did they blame her? I love your stories, but they are getting rushed.

Good story but one small fact bothered me. Erica was too young to have had her car seat in the front seat of the car.

I thought this story occured in the USA. Clearly it does not.

"all government workers except the police and fire departments always got Christmas Eve day off work with pay as well as the week between Christmas and New Year's Day."

This does not occur in US jurisdictions. Many use vacation days to cover here, but no government workers get extra leave to cover that period. It does occur frequently in the private sector especially in small businesses like dental or accounting offices since customers are often not available. But not in government in the US.

So, what country does this story take place?

Great story but the ending got a little too deep for me. Thanks for this one!

20 stars!

You keep writing like this, I'm going to have to buy stock in all the facial-tissue manufacturing companies. Another hit.

This bit, in particular,

"I thought Erica would hear me, and she did. In the process, she made Brent and Angela listen too, though they didn't know they were. It was just a little thought that Erica and I helped get big enough it overpowered the rest."

BOOM! I just lost it, crying like a baby! Wonderful story! That entire epilogue could have gone totally cheesy, but the way you wrote it just sealed the whole emotional package tighter than a drum!

The surprise at the conclusion is what made the story special.

Well done.

What can I say, I lost it during the epilogue. This may be my favorite story from you. This was awesome. I hope you and your family have a Merry Christmas.

Delightful Christmas story. Only thing I could say was that Erica was too clever and I wondered if there was a spirit helping her. The epilogue confirmed it and is nicely written to wrap up the story.

hindsight2020 There are some very small towns that roll up the side walks at night and they do close down some government (town) offices.

The towns few and far between. way back in the 1960s my little Incorporated village closed the Village hall for most of the week between Christmas and New Year's Day.

I do agree that it doesn't seem to be a practice here in the states.

What a beautiful heartwarming story!

Loved the ending the best but there were some gaps I rarely see in your stories. Why did the daughters abandon her? I their first lovemaking they somehow transported from the living room to the bedroom. 4.4*

Very Wonderful Story !

Being an old man, it brought back many memories of how things can change. It's a shame real life can't have a good ending as this story does. Dying alone is not the life card l thought the world would have dealt me.

That was perfectly lovely. So glad to see people have happiness, especially when they've been wounded by loss so deeply. 5*

Great story, I just wish I could award more than 5 stars.

OBTW, what _will_ the older daughters be saying??? ;^) ;^) ;^)

Oh wow!!!! awesome story!! Love the ending. Would be a nice sequel to see how the daughters all get along and it all works out... great job!!

Cute. I wasn't overly thrilled with the mystical ending. And it would have been nice to hear about the slim, 30something replacement dumping Angela's ex when she tired of him and moved on to someone younger and more affluent.

In terms of quick thoughts, I would say this: in terms of the feelings this story generated, it is easily a 5; in terms of how Erica so quickly bonded to Angela, I would say that's a 5; in terms of how Brent dealt with his attraction to Angela and the novel way that you basically gave him female intuition.. I would say that was also a 5; however, one part of the story just really bugs me.

***

I do have to counter what one poster stated, which was that somehow the story seemed rushed. It was not, and there was more than sufficient exposition in most areas. I read another story, as I've already commented, where the author for whatever reason underdeveloped 2 major points that was proposed to be covered, and then just totally dropped them like hot potatoes: one was an archetype which is a major no-no to leave unattended... and another one was a major date which would have provided the extension to the story that would have made it more plausible to explain the female character's feelings toward the male character's feelings. Yet neither of those things happened. The only parts truly missing in the story is why didn't you examine the reason or reasons behind the daughters abandoning Angela? You mentioned that their daddy gave them everything, but then that also opens the question to what kind of guys did they marry? The ideal is always stated that a little girl wants to marry someone like her daddy, and a little boy wants to grow up to marry someone like his mother. Now, without that examination the one-liner of they blamed her for the divorce doesn't float anybody's boat because what did she do wrong? Was she under a piece of mistletoe and a New Year's party a couple of years before and another guy came up and kissed her and both the father and the daughters saw this? From what you say and wrote in the story, Angela was not promiscuous; Angela did not try to attract younger man's attention; Angela did not neglect her motherly duties toward her children; she went above and beyond and raising them, to where the fact on what she sacrificed and how she raised them should have equated to her daughters loving her the most regardless of whatever their daddy gave them. So that is really the elephant in the room that nobody can escape, because without it you can't justify them leaving Angela strictly on that basis. There are plenty of males that do and have left their wives for superficial reasons just to start things with a younger woman. In fact we have a saying in Colombia, that a guy that looks for a younger woman or girl ends up pissed on. What one poster stated that there should have been some kind of comeuppance for the dude abandoning her, was really something that was right on.. and could have been added to the story, but the only thing required that should have been explored should have been why the daughters abandoned Angela. Otherwise, I don't think any any readers would blame Angela for her self-doubts about her body, nor would they think she was overreacting to believe the holiday was now a disaster and something she hated. With this level of trauma, that is perfectly understandable. Even though I'm not a fan of the mystical ending, I can see why you used it, and I am not docking you a star because I disagree with ending you chose. That is in your purview as an author, and if that is part of your own belief, or if that is just something you felt most appropriate for this story, then so be it. The way you presented it felt plausible, and I didn't see why people should object to it, because some things are seemingly unexplainable just as John Nash would have said, "only in the mysterious equations of love Is there any reason or logic." How about that for a kicker?

***

So on the balance the story was very well developed; it was cute and lovable; it pulled at the heart strings and many different ways; even Erica somehow sensing.. even if you remove the mystical guidance from the equation that Angela was going to be Connie's perfect replacement, you've got a really good story. However not exploring the daughter's reasons for trying to ignore Angela completely.. then bringing them back strictly because she was getting married to a younger man and his seven-and-a-half year old daughter, It's too convenient of a solution without at least having explored what they thought or witnessed in the first place to lead them to think that their mother was to blame. So as much as I hate to, I have to rate this a 4⃣.

Nicely done. I wish there would have been more dialogue in the first third of the story.

Blessed more than a guardian angel. What a Christmas gift.

👍👍👍