The Hardest Part of Thanksgiving

By Melanie Grace

This is it. The song I had to write but almost couldn’t.

“Empty Chairs” is about the people who aren’t at the table anymore.

The grandparent who used to sit at the head. The sibling who’s estranged. The friend who died too young. The parent who’s gone. The relationship that ended. The person who should be here but isn’t, for whatever reason.

Every Thanksgiving table has empty chairs—whether they’re literal or figurative. And while the holiday is about gratitude and togetherness, it’s also about grief. About absence. About the weight of who’s missing.

I wanted this song to hit hard because this feeling hits hard. There’s no way to sugarcoat it or make it easier. So I didn’t try. “Empty Chairs” sits in the pain and lets it be what it is.

The melody is stripped down, raw. Because grief doesn’t need production—it needs space. It needs to be heard and felt and acknowledged before we can move forward.

Here’s what I’ve learned about Thanksgiving: the gratitude and the grief live right next to each other. We can be thankful for who’s here while mourning who’s not. We can celebrate the life we have while honoring the loss we carry. Those feelings don’t cancel each other out—they coexist.

“Empty Chairs” is the emotional core of this album because it’s the emotional core of so many Thanksgivings. We gather. We celebrate. We count our blessings. And we also notice the absences. We also carry the people we’ve lost. We also hurt.

This song doesn’t offer easy answers or false comfort. It just says: I see the empty chair. I know it hurts. You’re not alone in noticing what’s missing.

And sometimes, that’s enough.

Sometimes, being seen in our grief is its own kind of gratitude.

“Empty Chairs” is track 13 on My Thanksgiving, dropping November 21st.