Christmas without Mother -1997

      As I've said before, Christmas at the red house (my parent's house in West Virginia) was always wonderful.  Whenever it was possible, we drove home from Fort Bragg -- once flew home from Alaska -- to spend Christmas with my family.  Mother was always there to greet us at the door like we were royalty -- the house was decorated festively, with a HUGE tree full of one-of-a kind ornaments.  Christmas music was playing from the stereo, and the smells -- YUM!!  There was always soup or chili or something delicious cooking on the stove, and the cookie tins were full of chocolate chip cookies for Sara, strawberry-filled cookies for Steve, and Memaw's black walnut fudge for me. I always ate until I was about sick, but how I loved that stuff!  My mother loved holidays, and especially Christmas. But Mother was spending Christmas in heaven this year, after a long battle with the breast cancer that finally took her life in the spring.
      When I walked in the door a couple days before Christmas that year, there were no good smells or music or Mother to greet us.  Daddy was busy taking DOWN the Christmas tree.  Mother's College and Career Sunday School class had come down to decorate the tree a couple weeks earlier, just like in previous years.  But Daddy had forgotten to water it, and all the needles were on the floor. When I came in, he was in the process of dragging it outside -- then he was going to cut down another one that Mother had planted and start all over.  I realized I had a choice then -- either sit down and cry, or pick up a broom and start sweeping out the pine needles. I knew what my mother would do -- she always made lemonade when life gave her lemons -- so I started sweeping.
     We made donuts on Christmas Eve, just like always, and lots of family members were there -- but it just wasn't the same.  Daddy gave everyone money for Christmas, which we appreciated, but we missed all the little personal gifts that Mother always had piled under the tree.
     Daddy had been desperately lonely -- after being married for 50 years, he couldn't stand to stay home missing mother.  At first he visited all the relatives, church friends, old classmates, neighbors, and Army buddies, staying until late at night.  He walked 4 miles every morning, and sometimes another 4 in the evening. When he had visited everyone he knew, he started dating.  So by Christmas he had started seeing a widow and was smiling again.  We were happy for him, but it was extremely weird when he brought her over to meet us. We love her now, but that year she was NOT our mother, and we were not exactly thrilled with the situation.  Daddy spent every evening with her, so we sat in the empty house, missing Mother more than ever.  We didn't know it then, but that would be the last Christmas in the red house.  Daddy married Reba the next year and sold the house, and we all had to find new ways to spend Christmas Eve.
     This year Daddy is also spending Christmas in Heaven, and I miss him. But we will still make donuts and have our Christmas Eve party.  Life goes on, and we will celebrate the birth of the One who gives us peace and joy and hope with gratitude for the blessings He has poured out on us.  I hope that our children will continue to "make lemonade" and have a party when my generation is gone and they have to sweep out the pine needles and start over.