By Alex WayneThe customary hustle and bustle for presents, the thought of a variety of mini-feasts, and a reassuring sense of togetherness and companionship are some of the things that make Christmas a season to look forward to.Abiola GibsonIn some homes, residents have finished decorating and the aroma of traditional Christmas cuisine spirals tantalizingly into the atmosphere. It’s all so blissful for everyone….or is it?The real world has its ups and downs, and the latter exists in equal measure. Single-parent mothers, those courageous women who quite dutifully stand the test of time, don’t often complain,Cheap Authentic Jerseys, but their stories about the ‘Christmas Blues’ are quite compelling. The absence of a father figure in the home presents abundant challenges in the season of love and togetherness.LOOKING FOR A DIVINE MIRACLEMost mothers are thrilled by Christmas, but for one single-parent to whom I spoke, the season brings agonizing memories and the fear of failing to provide for her children.This Christmas, although she knows not where the season’s goodwill will come from, she is “trusting in the Lord to create a divine miracle”.Thirty-nine-year-old Bonita English is a mother of ten – five boys and five girls – who reveals that she has fought all her life to ensure that her children at least have the necessities, if not their wants. At this time every year,Cheap Jerseys Wholesale, though, she feels compelled to do so much more for them.This Christmas morning presents another challenge, not all of her kids will be present at the breakfast table, and that adds to Bonita’s melancholy. Today will see her celebrating with five of her children. Two of her sons have migrated in search of better job opportunities, one daughter has started her own family and two others have gone to stay with their dad’s relatives.Samantha Ragnauth“I have half of my children with me at home. It’s less expensive, but I just wish they were all with me. There have been so many Christmases that we’ve had to tough it out together. This one wouldn’t have been any different I guess, but their presence helps me beat any depression I feel.While I interviewed her, Bonita exhibited an admirable determination to bring happiness to her family despite the absence of a father figure in the home.“It’s really tough without a father figure among us. My children need that guidance,Wholesale NFL Jerseys, and it’s especially tough during times like Christmas when so many of their friends have their fathers around. I have had bad experiences with men throughout my life and the alternative…the situation which I am presently in is probably my only chance to not be tormented.”The hard working mother spoke of coming from a broken home where for years she endured the wrath and anger of a step-father who took glee in invoking ‘fire and brimstone’ instead of showing her fatherly love.Still in her early teens she ran away and sought refuge with strangers with whom she thought life would have been better. Sadly, the young and very pretty teenager became the target of male advances, none of which she was experienced enough to have dealt with. Men promised her “the moon and the stars” and she fell for it. And the babies arrived.sharlene James and her two-year-old-son-daquanWith each child came the episodes of abuse and betrayal as she soon realized that the men were more interested in sexual gratification than fathering a child.It was experiences such as those that drove Bonita to make a vow to fend for her children, something she has been doing for the last fifteen years. She sought solace in church and is popular for her morning devotions with members of her family that are still living with her at Bachelor’s Adventure, East Coast Demerara.Yes, she misses a permanent male presence in the home but as she puts it, “I would rather stay alone with my kids and my God than have a man use me like a door mat”.She still struggles to pay the rent, find food, send the kids to school and other duties, but she related that prayers are doing small wonders in the home, and she boasts of the day when the Lord will bring her tough fight to an end.A MISSING DAD AT CHRISTMASTwenty-eight-year-old Samantha Ragnauth is a cook at a popular snackette on Lombard Street in Georgetown. She juggles her hectic profession with taking care of her four children who, according to Samantha, seldom see the face of their dad.Three years ago, Samantha and the children’s father separated over what she describes as his “unfaithfulness” and the four children have been left to ‘feel the squeeze’ as Samantha chooses to put it.Now it’s Christmas and apart from complaining of how increasingly difficult it has become to maintain the children generally, what is frustrating to her is the inability to afford the simple things that migh