Ugly and dead as it is….




Driving home from a friend's house on Sunday evening we spotted 
a Christmas tree all by itself next to the high school. Just sitting 
there on this 1st day of June. I have no clue why that old dead tree 
was there but it reminded me of a story I read in a magazine many 
years ago….

One December there was this mom who was so sick she was in the 
hospital and couldn't come home for Christmas. Her husband 
decided he and the kids would not celebrate Christmas until his 
wife was released from the hospital. That took until APRIL.

As her husband pulled into their driveway with her that springy 
day in April….the wife looked out from the car window and could 
see this dead Christmas tree with hardly any blades left on the
branches, peering through the crack of their living room drapes. 
Up until that time the wife had no idea the family had been 
waiting all those months for Christmas.

I remember reading that story aloud to my Mom and saying to her, 
"Wasn't that the sweetest story!" Mom did not agree. She 
without hesitation said, "The last thing I would want to come 
home to after being in the hospital is a dead Christmas tree!" 

My Mom….alway the practical one.


PS  If anyone who lives in this area knows WHY that dead 
Christmas tree suddenly appeared by Clovis High, please do tell. 


6 comments:

grandmapeg said...

That Christmas tree was a sweet gesture, but I think I might have thought the same thing as your mom. Now if it was an artificial tree, that would have been great!

Anonymous said...

I agree with your mom.
darlene

Anonymous said...

Gasp!! This Charlie Brown type person sees beyond the needleless tree and sees the family's love and patience in waiting for Mom. The tree is not dead; it's alive with hope and faith.

pebble said...

My husband couldn't come home for Christmas one year. His dad was in the hospital 600 miles away from our home, his mom wasn't functioning well, and there was severe snow storms with closed mountain passes, so he just stayed with them. He didn't get home until New Years Day! We did leave the tree up for him (it wasn't a real tree anyway) and we left all his presents piled underneath, and kept adding more! We all gathered for a new family party to open his gifts. He thought it seemed more like a birthday. It was hard to be without him, plus a son on a mission, two married ones with inlaws, it was my and my eldest just hanging out, my most difficult Christmas ever. I could relate to the tree story, but what a fire hazard!

Grandma Honey said...

That is very very sweet Melinda. After all, it's all about family. Your husband must have been very touched by that New Years Day Christmas!

Anonymous: Guess I'm a Charlie Brown soul too because I think the waiting would speak volumes to the Mom finally coming home. I think it would also teach the children the real meaning of Christmas. Although I hope the kids didn't have to actually wait until April that year to open their gifts.

Susan Anderson said...

I have to agree with your mom. That would be dang depressing!

=)

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