Today is the last day of the Thanksgiving holiday, 2025.
I don't know what yours was like but mine was non-traditional to say the least.
I was not surrounded by relatives or loved ones, I did not have Turkey and 
yams and pumpkin pie.  I was not alone, however.  It was just me and my Wife.
We're both pretty depressed around the holidays because we are both 
family-less.  We have each other but that's it.  My dad died last year, my 
mom died a few years ago.  My sister and brother are on the other side of 
the country and don't talk to me or each other (AFAIK).  My wife's parents 
are dead.  We never had kids of our own but she had two from a previous 
marriage, her son killed himself in 2018 and her daughter, who lives only 20
minutes away, is estranged.  She has an untreated mental illness and suffers 
from delusions where her fears overtake her memories and become her reality.
This is exasterbated by her use of AI and a therapist who is probably also 
using AI.
In general, we're both depressed and on the best of days it's a struggle to
find one good thing in this godforsaken hellhole of a world that makes any of
it worthwhile.  The world is getting darker, colder, lonlier.
This holiday weekend, every night I've had dreams with my mom in it.  The 
dreams are always different and nothing consistent between them except that 
she's there.  My rational mind tells me that my loneliness and feeling of 
isolation makes me think of her especially around the holidays.  Even though 
we often didn't get to see each other during the holidays (in person) because 
she was usually not anywhere near me we'd still video-chat, talk, trade gifts
on Christmas, etc...
However, some part of my mind, wants to believe that she has a ghost and her
ghost is with me during these times and her spirit is close enough that I can
sense her while I'm sleeping.  
I don't believe in ghosts, I don't know what happens after death but what I do
know, in as much as I can know anything, is that there is no heaven or hell, 
at least not as we might picture it.  But I want to believe this thing about 
my mom, at least for now.
I don't know where my dad is.  I haven't dreamt of him, at least not recently.
We were not as close, I loved him and he loved me but we were always awkward 
toward each other.  Maybe this distance prevents me from sensing him, or maybe
prevents me from connecting with his memory while I sleep.
.