Thanksgiving was basically the pits. Mom didn’t feel like doing any cooking. And I wasn’t in the mood to do it. My husband and I bought the whole she-bang from a local grocer and hauled it to the town where Mom and Dad lived. Before the day was over, we had to take Mom to a hospice in Tucson. As we followed the ambulance, I told my dad and my husband that I had no intentions of ever cooking another Thanksgiving dinner again. At the moment, that holiday had lost all its' traditional meaning for me.
A couple of weeks later, she rallied somewhat and we all gathered at our house for a BBQ. We spent most of the day outside on the patio in our perfect Tucson weather. She even gave my husband a haircut! She was a hairdresser and a darned good barber, too.
It was a wonderful and memory-filled day.
As Christmas grew closer, it seemed Mom would go at any time. But, she held on…and held out…even though we tried to ‘trick’ her. Her poor body was worn out and her spirit was ready to fly, fly away. So, we gave her a Christmas gift on Christmas Eve, hoping she would think that it was now okay to leave us.
My husband and his daughter, my brother and myself left the hospice to go home for a Christmas Eve the likes of which we had never experienced.
There had been no shopping….no cooking….little decorating.
We had our tree up, mostly for Mary’s (hubby’s daughter) sake. And that was it.
Mary had made a gift, in school, for her Dad and me and we had got her something simple at the last minute.
Holding a death watch and making merry for the holidays just don't go together. So, little preparation had been made.
But we all sat around in the darkened living room, watched the twinkling tree lights and listened to some Christmas music….and loved each other.
And expected a phone call at any moment, saying she was gone.
Ha! She always was a pretty smart cookie! She held on till the day after Christmas and left peacefully and easily with her family gathered at her bedside.
But before she left us, she gave me the best Christmas gift I’ve ever received. It was the gift of a Christmas, spent as it should be spent. Without all the frantic fuss. Without all the stress of all the things that typically happen around Christmas.
That year, Christmas was all about LOVE and absolutely nothing else.
Thank you, Mom, my Christmas Angel.
Mom isn’t the only Christmas Angel in our family.
My sweet cousins’, very sweet Mom died on Christmas day, many years ago, when they were much, much too young to lose their Mother.
We figured she was there waiting for Mom…it being so close to Christmas and all.
I am GRATEFUL for these two good women in my life.
