Some will sit down to Thanksgiving dinner wearing T-shirts that honor a murdered loved one. Others will serve turkey and pie to a congregation devastated by gunfire. They will eat at friends’ tables because their own kitchens and homes were charred to ash.

For many families — too many, really — across an America battered by wildfires, hurricanes and mass shootings, this Thanksgiving is the first major holiday since life was ripped apart. There will be familiar meals and rituals. And a haunting new question this year: How does one give thanks after losing so much?

Some are dreading the day, their grief still too raw to go through the holiday motions. But others said they needed this Thanksgiving more than any other, and welcomed the opportunity to invite family, friends and tradition back into their homes, and find a few moments of gratitude and grace.

‘You just don’t even know what to say to God anymore.’

Sherri Pomeroy’s 14-year-old daughter, Annabelle, will not be there this Thanksgiving to bake her extra-fluffy chocolate chip cookies. Karla, Lou, Richard and Therese will not be joining other parishioners to tuck into plates of turkey and pie. They were among those killed on Nov. 5 at the massacre in Sutherland Springs, Tex., during a Sunday service at the First Baptist Church.