Liliane Derden's daughters have already had to come to grips with the unthinkable this year after their mother died when flight MH17 was shot from the sky.
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Now, little more than five months on from the tragedy, Chelsea and Cassandra Gibson are bracing themselves for their first Christmas without her.
Chelsea Gibson, who lives in Canberra, said the festive season would be "hard, as expected" in the wake of her mother's death, and admitted she had so far tried not to think about it too much.
"I can imagine it would be somewhat like her birthday was, super depressing and hard to get through," Ms Gibson said.
"Cassie and her daughter Ella are here from Perth so it will be nice to have the family around but it's going to be terribly hard, just like every other day."
Belgium-born Ms Derden, who lived in Hall, was among 298 passengers and crew who died when the Malaysian Airlines plane crashed in eastern Ukraine on July 17.
She was one of 38 Australians killed.
Ms Derden, 50, was remembered as a devoted mother at an overflowing memorial service at Kamberra Winery, in July.
Her partner and daughters travelled to Belgium for a funeral, in October, and brought her remains home soon after.
"There is definitely no guide to grieving, and we are all doing it differently, but I am lucky enough to have been able to spend a lot of time with Cassandra, who lives in Perth, over the past five months," Ms Gibson said.
"I'm sure that will change soon, and I'm not sure how I will cope, but every day is very different."
Ms Derden was on her way back to Canberra via Perth after visiting her siblings in Belgium when the flight crashed.
She also travelled to Berlin with Ms Gibson and the pair spent eight days in Morocco.
"They are the last memories I have of her so they are ones I will always treasure," Ms Gibson said.
American singer-songwriter Brooke Forman has paid tribute to Ms Derden in a song she hopes will give strength to the families affected by the tragedy.
The song, Paper Planes, was released earlier this month.
Ms Forman, who lives in New York, became friends with the mother-daughter pair on their Moroccan group tour and said Ms Derden took her under her wing.
"Just spending eight days with Liliane, truly touched me and I couldn't believe something that tragic could happen to one of the most beautiful people I had ever met."
Ms Gibson said: "I guess they only knew each other for a bit over a week and although it wasn't a long time it indicates to me what a huge impacting factor she had on so many lives."
She shared the song on her Facebook page so her family in Australia, Belgium and New Zealand could listen and said they all seemed "pretty touched" by it.
"I have had phone calls from family members crying, but mainly they have all been sharing the video with their friends.
"It's a beautiful song and mum loved music so it's definitely a fitting tribute."
Ms Gibson said her much-loved mother taught her "everything I needed to know: The value of money and love, how important it was to work hard for something you want and how to bounce back from something that sets you back.
"She was resilient and had her fair share of bumps along the way, so she shared her life experience with us and we learnt from her."
Proceeds from iTunes sales of Paper Planes will go to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS charity, which raises money for essential services for people with the disease and other serious illnesses in the US.
About 100 of the world's top AIDS researchers were on their way to an international conference in Melbourne when they perished on flight MH17.
