POZ Community Forums
Off Topic Forums => Off Topic Forum => Topic started by: Life on December 09, 2006, 02:58:28 pm
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From "Blue" to You...
It's just a small white envelope stuck among the branches of our
Christmas tree. No name, no identification, no inscription. It has peeked through the branches of our tree for the past 10 years or so.
It all began because my husband Mike hated Christmas -- oh, not the true meaning of Christmas, but the commercial aspects of it
-- the overspending, the frantic running around at the last
minute to get a tie for Uncle Harry and the dusting powder for
Grandma -- the gifts given in desperation because you couldn't
think of anything else.
Knowing he felt this way, I decided one year to bypass the usual
shirts, sweaters, ties, and so forth. I reached for something
special just for Mike. The inspiration came in an unusual way.
Our son Kevin, who was 12 that year, was wrestling at the junior level at the school he attended.
Shortly before Christmas, there was a non-league match against a team sponsored by an inner-city church.
These youngsters, dressed in sneakers so ragged that shoestrings
seemed to be the only thing holding them together, presented a sharp
contrast to our boys in their spiffy blue and gold uniforms and
sparkling new wrestling shoes. As the match began, I was alarmed to see that the other team was wrestling without headgear, a kind of light helmet designed to protect a wrestler's ears. It was a luxury the ragtag team obviously could not afford.
Well, we ended up walloping them. We took every weight class.
And as each of their boys got up from the mat, he swaggered around in his tatters with false bravado, a kind of street pride that couldn't acknowledge defeat.
Mike, seated beside me, shook his head sadly, "I wish just one of them could have won," he said. "They have a lot of potential, but losing like this could take the heart right out of them." Mike
loved kids-- all kids-- and he knew them, having coached little league football,
baseball, and lacrosse.
That's when the idea for his present came. That afternoon, I
went to a local sporting goods store and bought an assortment of wrestling headgear and shoes and sent them anonymously to the inner-city church.
On Christmas Eve, I placed the envelope on the tree, the note inside telling Mike what I had done and that this was his gift from me. His smile was the brightest thing about Christmas that year and in
succeeding years. For each Christmas, I followed the tradition --
one year sending a group of mentally handicapped youngsters to a hockey game,another year a check to a pair of
elderly brothers whose home had burned to the ground the week
before Christmas, and on and on. The envelope became the
highlight of our Christmas. It was always the last thing opened
on Christmas morning, and our children, ignoring their new toys,
would stand with wide-eyed anticipation as their dad lifted the envelope from the tree to reveal its contents.
As the children grew, the toys gave way to more practical presents,
but the envelope never lost its allure. The story doesn't end there.
You see, we lost Mike last year due to cancer. When Christmas
rolled around, I was still so wrapped in grief that I barely got
the tree up. But Christmas Eve found me placing an envelope on
the tree, and in the morning it was joined by three more. Each of
our children, unbeknownst to the others, had placed an envelope
on the tree for their dad. The tradition has grown and someday
will expand even further with our grandchildren standing around the tree with wide-eyed anticipation watching as their fathers take down
the envelope.
Mike's spirit, like the Christmas spirit, will always be with us.
May we all remember Christ, who is the reason for the season, and the true Christmas spirit this year and always.
God Bless!
Blessed are the cracked, for it is they who let in the light.
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Now, THAT is Christmas! Eric, you may have just caused my heart to grow 3 sizes this day!
~+
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Eric, that was the most beautiful think that I ever heard :'( thank you, God Bless you and your children as well
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was a beautiful story Eric.
( I have to admit, when I first started reading I thought, 'hey, his husbands name isn't Mike! ") ;)
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Eric,
Thanks for posting it and you beat me to it.Blue sent it to me too and l was thinking got to post it.
Merry Christmas to you and Will.
Cherie
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ok, now I get it. Still beautiful.
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Hey Eric...
Thank you for sharing this with us!
Happy Holidays!