Give Thanks to Those Who Serve on Holidays
For the twenty years my husband worked with the NYPD, we had Thanksgiving dinner together maybe three times. And I mean, a real dinner where we sat down at dinner time and then spent the evening with family or friends. He, as most first responders and essential workers, worked nearly every Thanksgiving.
I’m grateful beyond words that he is with us now and that we can spend this day together. But I will always think of the time when it wasn’t so, and I am deeply grateful to the people who leave their warm homes and go off to do the jobs our society needs done to function.
Police officers, firefighters, nurses, doctors, EMTs, the bartenders and waiters who will serve people who don’t have a family or who need an escape, the gas station attendants who will make sure everyone gets to their destinations, the pilots and flight attendants. Yes, they all chose their jobs, but it doesn’t take the sting out of being away from their loved ones on a holiday.
And on the other end, the spouses and children and friends who miss their special person and breathe a sigh of relief when they are reunited again. They made it through one more holiday.
I’m Thankful For:
- My family
- The luxury of being able to be home, warm, well fed, surrounded by people I love
- Books!
- Having the amazing opportunity to write and publish
- My fellow writers, who have become friends, and who always have an interesting story up their sleeve
- The Miss Demeanors! Superstars, one and all
- All the opportunities and luck that have come my way. I don’t take a thing for granted
- You! For showing up and reading
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! Yes, it’s officially a diet cheat day. Eat carbs, drink booze, have that hunk of cheese. YOLO.
Emilya Naymark
Her short stories appear in the Bouchercon 2023 Anthology, A Stranger Comes to Town: edited by Michael Koryta, Secrets in the Water, After Midnight: Tales from the Graveyard Shift, River River Journal, Snowbound: Best New England Crime Stories 2017, and 1+30: THE BEST OF MYSTORY.
When not writing, Emilya works as a visual artist and reads massive quantities of psychological thrillers, suspense, and crime fiction. She lives in the Hudson Valley with her family.