December 21, 2007

Christmas Supplement

Neighbor’s special present thrills girl with its magic

By Helen F. Welter (Special to The Criterion)

As a child, I was one in a family of seven children and my parents struggled to “make ends meet.”

Our Christmas was small, and most of the gifts that Santa brought us were homemade.

However, one gift that we received each year, usually a few days before Christmas, was new and came from an older couple who lived next door to us.

Their only child was grown and had moved out of the city. Every year, these neighbors would wrap an individual gift for each of the seven of us—something bought in a store that we would never have thought of asking Santa to bring us.

One year, when I was about 6 years old, my gift was a small, child-size suitcase. Even today, 50-plus years later, I remember the shiny maroon leather-like grain of the case and the zipper that held it closed.

When my grandmother died the following fall, I remember how proud I was to be able to carry my own little suitcase—none of my sisters had such a thing!—as we traveled to another city for her funeral.

I remember the delight it was to open that zipper and “check” to see that my clothing was still in place. That little suitcase became my own secret, magic bag that carried me to far-off imaginary places.

So now, many years later, as I wrap and send Christmas gifts to a child whose single Mom struggles to provide gifts to her daughter—who is about the age I was when I received that special gift—I recall the joy and pleasure of the wonderful present I received and hope that she, too, finds some secret magic in the gifts that I send to her.

(Helen F. Welter is a member of St. Barnabas Parish in Indianapolis.) †

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