A Christmas Story

(picture is the Indianapolis Monument Circle at Christmastime)

Afunt inspired me to think about Christmases in the past and think about one of my favorite memories. So, here it is:

This was Christmas that almost every member of my family was ill or hurt – except for my sister and I. (read on - that wasn't the favorite memory part)

Mom had just undergone a lumpectomy for breast cancer and was going through treatments. In conjunction with her surgery my father was trying to get the crops harvested. Every year (and still to this day and he’s almost 70) there was always a big rush to get all the corn and soybeans combined out of the field before the holiday hit and it snowed too much to harvest. Many a Christmas holiday was spent shoveling corn, picking him up from the fields and hooking up wagons and actually combining corn. Some of you may not be familiar with a machine they call a combine –
here’s a pic.
("nuthin' runs lika deer" -riiiight)

My father had two of these monstrous machines. Which, ALWAYS broke down – especially, when there was a rush to get all the crops done. So, no big surprise when one night right after Mom’s surgery Dad was out in the field and the combine broke down. He climbed up on top of it to fix it and ended up falling off and landing with his hands in front of him breaking both wrists. So, he was in dual casts. At the same time our grandmother had undergone surgery on one of her lungs and was also getting treatment. She had lost all her hair and was wearing a turban on her head at this time. In short, no one could drive them to their appointments in Indianapolis. This happened right before I had to take my finals at Purdue. My sister and friends pitched in to help until I could get home from school to take care of them.

That holiday was spent basically in the waiting room of Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis or in the car driving. I would drop Mom off for her appointment get Grandma to her appointment just in time to go pick up Dad from his. During this time my patience was wearing thin. I wasn’t used to spending so much time with my family – let alone up for the job of taking care of 3 sick people. I had my hands full.

There was one day that Dad finally got both of his casts off. I had picked him up and we were heading over to pick up Mom and Grandma. We were in the car and I had the heat blasting because it was so cold. Dad decided at that moment to start picking at all the flakes of dead skin on his arms (that developed under his casts) and suddenly the car was filled with flakes of dead skin flying through the air and being blasted around the car because of the heat vents. I just lost it right then and there. I pulled the car over and opened the windows and threatened if he didn’t stop doing that I was going to put him out on the road right there. For once I was actually in charge of my father – and, it felt good. ;-)

Another day while Mom and Dad were at their appointments I decided to take Grandma to a wig shop just off the square of Indianapolis. The minute the owner laid eyes on my grandmother she was all over her getting out wigs and fitting them to her head. We left with three wigs – a blond, redhead and a brunette. Grandma liked variety. As we crossed the street, me holding Grandma’s arm and us carrying the wigs between us we noticed that there was a tow truck getting ready to hook up to my parent’s car. I had unknowingly parked in a tow zone. When the guy working the truck looked up and saw my grandmother with her little red turban on her head and me helping her with her wigs he just dropped the chain he was going to hook up to the car. I asked him if there was a problem and he said there wasn’t and to have a Merry Christmas before he got into his truck and drove away. As we watched him drive away my grandmother said, “I wonder what he was doing?” I just shrugged my shoulders and said, “I don’t know, Grandma.”

Christmas Eve night we were all in the living room watching TV. We were all cranky from being with each other all day and depressed because of everything that had happened before the holiday - I longed for my quiet apartment at Purdue and my warm girlfriend (I wasn't out to my parents at this time). There was a knock at the door. Everyone looked at each other like wtf? Who the heck would knock on the door at 9:00 at night (which, was late for my convalescent parents). I got up and went to the door and looked out the window to see whom it was. The whole congregation of the church my parents went to (not the little country one that I wrote about before – this was a new one they went to later) were standing out on the porch – there was about 30 people. I said, “Uh, you guys might want to come in here –“ My parents came in from the living room just as the congregation was filing into our small kitchen and dining room. They filled the house and started singing Christmas carols to us. There wasn’t a dry eye in the place after they left.

I think that is my happiest Christmas memory.