oh dear, that's awful - and what a stupid thing for your HR manager to say. Firstly because it's such a busy time for the office and secondly because everyone is going to want to rib you for taking 'holidays' then. That person should have said you had to take personal time so the others could have at least guessed it wasn't a great time for you no matter what the situation was

Is there someone you can speak to that will be good at disseminating the correct information about the office (there is always one or two )?
I had to do that because someone with a BIG FAT mouth told my whole office I was preg again when I was on mat leave. Well I lost that baby and had to return to everyone telling me how fantastic and trim I looked for a preg chick. It was horrible for everyone because I had to correct them and they were horrified to put me in that position.
Got the office "source" to spread it around for me and that really helped.