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RE: The Statue of St. Wenceslas ⚡️ #club100
Our family would have a meal with my piano teacher every Christmas Eve. She was unmarried and alone, and it was good to spend the evening with her. Towards midnight, we would go to our church (Anglican), and there was a communion service, which included singing Christmas Carols. It was a much simpler time.
I read it like a good short story and I visualized it in my imagination. Maybe simple times were happier times.
Last week the Steem Skillshare community had a contest regarding love. I held off until after the contest and wrote an article with a follow-up commentary. The underlying emotion in my Christmas anecdote was love. Miss Eleanor Davidson (my teacher) loved our family, and we loved her. She was one of those people who had an incomplete life. She had been engaged to a man who died in the war. She never recovered from that. She became an essential friend to my parents when my sister, Nancy, was dying from leukemia. Eleanor accompanied my parents and sister to Florida during the winter preceding Nancy's death. As a side note, on the morning they were set to leave, Father had gone out to the barn to milk the cows and discovered a third of them had been electrocuted. He returned to the house, contacted the police and the insurance company and left the rest in my hands (I was 17 at the time). They left on vacation, and Eleanor was essential to everyone. Nancy died three months later.
Mother and I are the only two who can remember this episode, and now you make three. My simpler times were not necessarily happier times. On the other hand that Christmas Dinner once had an unexpected consequence.
My Grandmother lived a couple of blocks away from Miss Davidson. Friday afternoons, I would go for my lessons and, upon returning to my Grandmother's house, would spend the night with her and help with chores the next day. During the summer, I would mow the lawn, etc.; during the winter, I would shovel.
On the corner of the block that my Grandmother lived on were a pair of sisters: Clara and Hazel Hill. I would help around their house on the weekends as well. One late afternoon, my Grandmother and I were invited to their house. When we arrived, the "girls" had prepared a massive Christmas dinner, with turkey, mashed potatoes etc. It included all the preserves and treats that only two little old Canadian women could create. I was a teenager at the time and had a wonderful appetite. Squaring my shoulders, I commenced to eat. As I would clear a section of the plate, they would add something new and even tastier. Finally, after 6:30 pm arrived, and it was time to go. We bid Hazel and Clara our final Merry Christmas, and I drove my Grandmother home for the night.
I neglected to mention that this was Christmas Eve, and the rest of my family were waiting for me to start eating at 7:00 pm at Miss Davidson's. I arrived a few minutes later. My family and Eleanor looked at me expectantly from the dinner table. I initially mentioned that I wasn't very hungry, but the hurt look on Eleanor's face made me persevere. Mouthful after mouthful, I made my way through the meal. The food was exquisite both in taste and the pain that I was feeling. My forehead beaded with sweat. Finally, the meal was over. I didn't make the Christmas service that year.
In a number of the posts entered in the contest, the central theme about love was sacrifice. Sometimes it is about adding a smile of satisfaction to the faces of some kind ladies. I hope this last anecdote might add a smile to yours.
Hi David, thank you so much for sharing this special and sincere memory. The death of a loved one and the whole process is painful. Some images, emotions and sounds freeze and turn into unforgettable memories. I'm sorry about your sister. Miss Eleanor Davidson has healed you all with her presence, and I think you all have healed her. The time you spent with your grandmother, your relations with the neighbors were all very pleasant and I envisioned it. It is very meaningful and happy to cause a smile on a woman's face 😊
Remember that when you have the urge to punch me over the thousands of miles.
That is a deal 😄👍