It'll be different this Christmas. It’s always different. Each Christmas in its turn has all the flavours, fruit and spices of all the others, with the gleanings of another 12 months packed into it. Another Spring’s growth in the height of the children rising green and sap-filled to stretch and reach the challenges of school and life- they are a constant source of comfort and delight. Another Summer’s blossoming of Valerie’s love and care, endless patience, support and encouragement. Another Winter’s frost in my whiskers; another Winter’s damp in my legs.
This Christmas, for the first time, we will be able to have crackers, and make as much noise as we like opening presents, without upsetting our dear old puppydog, Barney, where she lies out in the garden. We laid her there last September when she began her last and forever sleep, in the sunshine. The shadow of her passing was dark and cold, but we will laugh with her again, this Christmas, as we remember how the first present to be opened was a ‘chew’ (from Grandma) to occupy Barney for the morning’s noisy unwrapping, and how she always managed to creep into the frame when anyone produced a camera.
annie and Grandpa will spend Christmas with Valerie’s sister, Christine, at Wetherby; we will just have Grandma, who is now permanently resident with us. We will all work very hard to give her the best possible Christmas, but with Grandma, that’s easy- just be happy, because all she wants in life is for us, her family, to be happy. It will be easy but difficult because this will be Grandma’s last Christmas. The Dark Angel sent her an early Christmas card with a big ‘C’ scribed in burning ice. One of the crystals must have dropped down her back, and frozen the nerves to her legs, But she will insist on ‘zimmering’ to the dining table to join the feasting. For the rest of the time, she will preside over the proceedings like a tiny silverwhite queen in her opulent, cushion-piled daybed, soaking up TLC in measureless quantities.
Yes, Christmas will be different, but it will be very special because it will make such a store of memories of love to fuel many a Christmas to come.
hen one silent night morning, without leaving a mark on either winter snow or spring frost, Grandma will step out into the early sunshine, in the little black costume she was married in, and the cheeky trilby she was so pleased with (all dust or dusters long ago) to take the arm of her tall handsome trooper who has waited 50 yrs for the honour. They will walk through the paradise gardens and none will see or hear them go.
t will be a very merry Christmas; we are bent on it. Miriam and John will do Grandma more good by blowing carols through their recorders than the NHS could achieve in a twelve month. She’ll even applaud when I wring the same carols, stammering and wailing, out of the piano, with one remorseless hand. As Valerie presents her with an endless supply of the most succulent morsels lovingly prepared, she’ll greet each one with ‘Oh that looks lovely!’ and clean her plate.
This Christmas, for Christmas, we will have all that we desire, and more. We wish the same for you.