My
most difficult holiday season was also the one I remember with the deepest
sense of love, devotion and gratitude.
I was
a 19 year old student in college, away from my family. My parents couldn't
afford to fly me home, there were no friends driving to my home state,
and my job wouldn't give me enough time off to make a trip home. Had
I quit my job, I would not have been able to make rent in January. All
the cards were stacked against me. I was staying.
I knew
that this Christmas would be a quiet and lonely one if I didn't take
it upon myself to find some way to cheer things up. But I couldn't come
up with anything to change that. It seemed like everyone was leaving
campus and my apartment building was even unusually quiet. I worked
the day of Christmas Eve, then walked the two blocks home in the snow.
As I rounded the corner of my apartment building I saw Christmas tree
lights on in the window downstairs where the single, elderly woman lives.
Something
made me knock at the door. I don't know if it was an angel or my own
personal need to be with someone. That night I shared eggnog with an
84 year old woman who would also have been alone had I not stopped by.
We sang caroles and I listened to her talk of 80 years of celebrations
with her brothers, sisters, then her husband. She never had children
and her husband had passed away just a few years ago. That night, I
was her child, she was my family. It's funny how I had seldom spoken
to her before that night, but in the shadows of loneliness, we found
each other and celebrated more than a blessed holiday, but also a new
friendship.
The next day after calling my family, I
visited her church with her, then came home in the afternoon to find
invitations from friends who had not left campus after all. It's funny
how things happen so that souls can meet. I hope one day that I will
be there for someone who is away from family.
