Christmas With Family?

A First Prize contest winner for "SENIOR CENTER FORUM"  December, 2009

Juliann took one last look at the home she and her husband had rented for the past tens years, as the wintry breeze bit at her cheeks. She carried an overstuffed camouflaged backpack of her husbands, slung over her left shoulder, where she'd carefully packed a few remaining memories of their thirty year marriage and slowly walked away. The children were spread across the country with families of their own. They didn’t know of her financial troubles and if she had her way, they never would.

She had hidden her fears from them all. Jason had his heart attack and he had lived another two years, thank the Lord. They had struggled to pay all the medical bills. Now he was gone, his social security check had stopped and there just wasn’t enough money.

The landlord had been patient, but she couldn’t and wouldn’t live on charity, especially from her children. All of them had lovingly fought over which one of them she should move in with. She loved them, and of course the grandchildren, but she wanted and needed her own life.

The first to invite her to visit for Christmas was her oldest son. “Please, he begged. Mom we want you. We love you.”

She turned him down, "Honey, I've already accepted an invitation from friends." The others also telephoned with requests. Her answers were all a little different, but she hadn’t lied.

These last few years she and her soul mate had spent holidays helping the homeless mission downtown. They had cooked, served, cleaned and made many friends. The two of them had spent countless hours, outside of the holidays, with these special friends. Many of her friends had sociological disorders that just kept them from being accepted by society.

She had reached the corner bus stop and sat on the bench to wait its arrival. It started to snow and she turned her head to the morning sky taking in a big breath of crisp air. “Thank you Lord,” she spoke aloud to herself, “We will have a white Christmas after all.” Her words visibly floated off towards the heavens with the vapor from her exhalation.

Boarding the bus amongst many Christmas wishes, she smiled inwardly, ready for her new adventure. She wouldn’t see her regular acquaintances that rode this bus again, which saddened her. Juliann didn’t tell any of them she wouldn’t be riding again, when her destination arrived, she just smiled and waved her hand like she had done countless times in the past, saying, "Merry Christmas," and stepped down and out of their world forever.

The red brick building that stood before her was three stories high and reached toward the heavens with an ancient bell tower trimmed in freshly painted white. Her husband would have been proud. He had spent countless hours working on its reconstruction. It contrasted severely with the aged, dirty and sporadically cracked brick facade of the rest of the building.

Pastor Jim met Juliann at the front door. “Welcome sister. Please allow me?” he greeted her as he gestured towards her backpack.

“Thank you.” She responded barely above a whisper as she gratefully passed the heavy bag to him.

“Let me show you your room.”

Juliann dutifully followed him as they walked through the main dining room towards the back where the kitchen door opened to their left. It wasn't overly warm inside, but it was out of the wind, and friendly lit. She had been here many times without the noise of the congregating street dwellers, but today was different. It would now be her home.

“It isn’t much, Juliann.” Pastor Jim said apologetically.

“I don’t need much, Pastor.” She spoke as he opened a door. “Oh my, this is much nicer than I expected.”

The room was small with a faint smell of white wash still lingering in the air. A small narrow window with pink cafe curtains let in a little natural light from the alley. A three drawer dresser placed flush between the window edge and the wall. A small cot, with a pink spread, rested perpendicular to the other side of the window next to a wall. A small straight back wooden chair sat in the corner opposite the door, adorned with a pink seat cushion. One single light bulb with a pull string hung from the ceiling, in the center of the room. It was obvious to Juliann that it had been a walk-in storage room.

“Unpack, and make yourself at home. I’ll be upstairs in the dormitory readying for the evening rush. Join me when you’re settled.”

~~~~

They prepared all the cots on the second floor with fresh linens. Snow usually brought more of the street dwellers into the mission for a dry slumber, even though there were still quite a few that never slept away from their alleys and underpasses, the cold would bring them in for a hot meal.

Soon they were hauling boxes of Christmas decorations out from storage. Juliann and Pastor Jim went about decorating the dining room singing carols. She wished they had a tree to trim, but money was always tight and paying the bills was always difficult. Food was the first priority, even though, much of it was donated by congregations through out the city, there was always a need to visit the grocer, who thank God, gave the mission a discount.

Conversation ensued, and Pastor Jim asked, “Juliann, please let your family know where you’re at?”

“No Pastor Jim.” She responded with a tone of determination.

“Well then, at least let me place a phone call.”

“I will call them on Christmas. There’s no need to worry them.”

“But, surely, they will be worrying about you.”

“No, they seldom call.” Her voice strong, “I know they love me, but I’m an after thought.” She paused and continued softly saying, “They know I can take care of myself.”

~~~~

On Christmas Eve, Juliann was busy in the kitchen with the volunteers. Those that helped regularly were of no concern as they knew what to do. But, there were always those that had never given of their time until now. They needed instructions and watched over carefully.

Pastor Jim was hovering close to the front door. He was pacing anxiously and stopped to glance out the window every few minutes. Juliann noticed and asked, “Is something wrong?”

“No, sister,” he said abruptly and then, “Sorry...Uh...Um...I was just hoping for a tree.”

Laughing, Juliann teased, “You remind me of my grandchildren.”

“How’s that?” His forehead wrinkled in a comical expression.

“Sorry, no disrespect sir, but you’re pacing around as if Santa Claus was expected to walk through that door.”

“Well, well...just maybe he is! Lord knows we could use a few gifts around here.” He chuckled and took both of his hands, palms down, and flipped them towards her in a scooting manner. “Back to work you go.”


A few hours later, just as dinner was getting close to serving, and the dining room was starting to fill will the early birds wandering in out of the cold, a loud commotion outside could he heard. In came the Christmas tree already decorated with lights and garland. The sound of Carolers singing, “We Wish You a Merry Christmas,” could be heard. The voices sounded so familiar to Juliann.

“Ma’am, hurry, Pastor Jim said come get ya‘.” A scruffy looking older man pled, while standing in the kitchen doorway.

Juliann stepped through the doorway. Her eyes fell upon a beautiful Christmas tree lit up in the corner of the dining room, surrounded by Christmas carolers and Santa Claus was there. She closed her eyes, shook her head, and looked again.

“Blessed be.” She screamed as she ran towards them.

It was her family. The oldest was poorly disguised as Santa, and all the grandchildren. She quickly wrapped her arms around them. Joyful tears flowing down her cheeks.

“Mom,” Santa Claus said, “We all thought it was time that this part of the family met these important friends of yours."