Thursday, December 2, 2010

A Christmas Memory

There is one Christmas event that persists from my early memories.


Frances (my mothers mother), continued to work beyond her retirement years as a Registered Nurse taking on temp nursing home positions. One afternoon while she was away from her house,  my mother, (and her only child,) decided to surprize her with a little Christmas tree.


After buying a small set of twinkling lights and a small fresh table top tree with a crossed wooden stand nailed to the trunk, my mother let herself into the empty house. With my help we proceeded to set up the little tree complete with the lights and small blown glass balls hanging from the branches.

This apparent random act of kindness was in stark contrast to the overt contempt that my mother displayed for her mother on a regular basis. And this is why the memory remains clear to me after all these years.


I loved setting up that little tree knowing that my grandmother would be so pleased to find it waiting for her arrival home.

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