Eyes that see the good in things: Nov. 26, 2018

This week, I share a true story with you that inspires the gift of giving in me during the holiday season. I hope it will make you smile and inspire you as we move into the holiday season.

Jack woke early that Christmas Eve morning, thinking about a conversation he’d had the day before with one of his co-workers. Although he didn’t know him well, Jack knew that Manny’s family had been through a tough year. Both families had three-year-old boys and baby daughters, but Manny’s daughter had been born very prematurely and had spent months in the neonatal intensive care unit before she was finally released from the hospital that December.

It was the conversation with Manny the day before that was keeping Jack awake. Jack knew how much his own son was eagerly anticipating Christmas. He had excitedly “helped” with the Christmas preparations, decorating, baking and wrapping gifts. When the decorating was finished, he asked to have decorations in his room and went to sleep every night to the glow of the Christmas lights in his window. When Jack asked Manny the day before what they were planning to do for Christmas, he hadn’t been prepared for Manny’s answer.

After a long pause, Manny told Jack that he and his wife had decided not to celebrate Christmas this year. He said that his wife had to leave her job when their daughter was in the hospital. Even now, the special care that she required made it impossible to enroll her at any of the local daycares. So, with the mounting medical bills and only one salary, they had decided that they would just treat Christmas like any other day. Manny tried to make it seem like it was no big deal, but Jack spotted the tears welling in Manny’s eyes before he quickly turned away.

Jack knew he wanted to do something, he just didn’t know what. When his wife, Amanda, woke up, he asked her if she would put together a plate of Christmas goodies that he could bring to their house. After she heard the story, she knew they could do better than that. You see, her family had a tradition of adopting people over the holidays.

All Amanda told Jack was that she would work on getting some things together and he could make the delivery when he got home from work that afternoon. Jack said that would work well, since Manny had told him that they would be gone in the afternoon to take their daughter to the clinic.

It didn’t take long for a plan to percolate in Amanda’s head. She bundled the kids up and drove to her parent’s home, where her brothers and sisters were just getting out of bed. After sharing the story with her parents and siblings, they all wanted to help. The girls decided to go shopping. Amanda’s mom and sister went to the grocery store with a list of items to make meals for Christmas Eve, Christmas breakfast and Christmas dinner.

Amanda took her son and another of her sisters gift shopping. Since Amanda’s kids were roughly the same age as Manny’s children, she purchased the same types of gifts for Manny’s son that she had purchased for her own son. That was easy, but buying for the baby wasn’t quite as easy. Amanda knew she was so tiny that she was still wearing doll clothes so she finally decided on a doll that came with a couple of cute sleepers. Then, when she outgrew the sleepers, her dolly could have them back. She added a few smaller items for the kids, and a few gifts for their Mom and Dad before heading back home.

While the rest of them were shopping, the one remaining sister worked on decorating a wreath and putting lights on an artificial Christmas tree. Then, she went to the dollar store and purchased some coordinating ornaments, so the little boy could decorate his own tree. She also picked up a Christmas tablecloth, four Christmas plates, four Christmas goblets and a hook to hang the wreath on the door.

Amanda and her son stopped by their house on their way back to her parents, to put together a plate of Christmas cookies. When they got back to her parents, they wrapped gifts for the family of four and then packed the boxes of groceries, gifts and decorations. Her brothers decided they needed some more “fun foods” in the boxes and started raiding their mom’s pantry to add boxes of cereals, hot chocolate mix, marshmallows and candy canes. Then Amanda called Jack and asked him to stop by her parent’s home when he left work.

When he arrived, they loaded the boxes into the car and Amanda was surprised to see her dad walk out of the house carrying a cooler. Opening the lid, she found many white freezer paper wrapped packages of beef that he had just taken out of their freezer. Although Jack said he didn’t know if they had freezer space for a cooler full of meat, Amanda’s dad said that it was cold enough to keep it in the trunk of their car if they had to.

With the car loaded, Jack took their son and Amanda’s brothers to make the delivery in hopes of making a little boy’s Christmas a little merrier. Everyone had last minute instructions.

“Make sure that you hang the wreath on the door, don’t just leave it with the rest of the decorations.”

“Keep the plate of goodies straight in the car, so they don’t all slide together.”

“Try to leave the gifts inside, if you can.”

When they reached the family’s trailer house, Jack was relieved to find the entry door unlocked, so they loaded the boxes inside the entry and then, as instructed, he hung the wreath on the door and set the tree beside the door.  

He smiled as he watched the excitement of his son, who had helped to pack each of those Christmas boxes, knowing that the packages were going to a little boy his own age. Jack drove away knowing that, in this time where we’re always trying to pare down our duties for the holidays, this tradition of his wife’s family was one tradition worth keeping.

We would love to share local stories about the good things your eyes are seeing.

Stop in to share your stories with us, give us a call at 947-2417 or e-mail us at [email protected]. Or send a letter to Eyes That See the Good in Things, c/o Allison Lindgren, The Transcript, 6 8th St N., New Rockford, ND 58356.