MY brother has never had the best of birthdays. Too close to Christmas, as a youngster it meant he never received many presents, which always pleased me.
Then, four years ago today, my dad died, meaning December 29 would never really represent my brother's birthday anymore.
In some ways it never was, as a quick look at Wikipedia reveals December 29 to be the date that the first American YMCA opened in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1851; the Luftwaffe firebombed London, killing almost 200 civilians in 1940; and, in 1990, leaders of the Khmer Rouge apologised for the 1970s genocide in Cambodia that claimed more than one million lives.
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Famous people to share his birth date - though obviously they weren't born in the same year - include former Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone, actors Bernard Cribbins and Jude Law and born-with-brains-in-his-feet footballer Kieron Dyer. People who died on that day include Bob Monkhouse.
The point is that times of celebration for some people represent moments to mourn for others and sometimes, as in my brother's case, the emotions contrast.
This applies every day, from January 1 - Happy New Year? New year, new start? Well, not for everyone - to December 31. Out with the old, in with the new? Well, not always.
A new year for the majority of people seems to simply mean more of the same of what has just ended and a birthday is just a date by which to mark time.
So we muddle through Christmas, raise a glass to my brother and my dad today, then look to the next hurdle - New Year's Eve.
It's never been a particular favourite of mine. I once received a good bashing while waiting for a taxi, resulting in the driver refusing to transport me due to the amount of blood pouring from my nose.
On another occasion, walking home from the pub, I tripped over some building works and landing face down in the road, squashing my nose and breaking one of my front teeth.
The lesson there, if I'm honest, is not that New Year's Eve is a bad time but that it's an occasion on which I shouldn't drink so much.
Now, however, it represents a time for my mum, particularly, and my brother and I, to remember old acquaintances - my father - while it briefly hides a new dawn, the next year, to be faced without him.
Of course, come January 1, it's never as bad as you thought it would be, but then you all say your goodbyes and head off to your various homes to prepare for the return to work and normality - whatever that may be.
Getting through is made easier by the knowledge that people, work and life in general take your mind off those who may no longer be with you in the new year and by the fact that you are, obviously, not the only ones to be in such a position.
Hopefully, 2008 will be a good one and bring us what we wish for, though,
as we know, that can not be the case for everyone.
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