A Christmas Story

By Dave Stebbins
Turley Publications Guest Columnist

The Red Ryder BB Gun wasn’t the only gift under the tree we had asked Santa for. But don’t get me wrong, at the age of 10, still, a shiny new Daisy BB gun was the best Christmas present we ever received, or would ever receive. However, it wasn’t the only gift that we had a double dimensional dream over on Christmas Eve.
We loved those AFX slot car race track sets by Aurora. They were certainly in the category of a “major present” along with BMX bikes, hockey skates and sticks, skis, a new pair of Timberland boots (back when they were made in the USA and had a Vibram sole made right here in the Quabog Valley).
We also received gifts that were kind of weird too, not so much a pink bunny rabbit outfit, but let’s just say they were “handmade” gifts.
Unfortunately, back in 1977 I really didn’t have a grasp on what Christmas was all about. At that age, it was all jingle bells and ho, ho, ho. Even after watching Linus explain it perfectly to Charlie Brown year after year, it still didn’t sink in, I just didn’t get it.
Until one Christmas when Santa messed up pretty bad. After dreaming all night of waking up to a sea of presents, I finally got out of bed and did the typical sneak into the bathroom to make a little noise routine. You know, flush the toilet, run the water, and on the way back to my room, ya gotta take that ultimate “sneak a peak” into the living room just to build the excitement and then return to bed and wait for your sister or brother to make some noise so you could join in and make it official.
Oh, there was a sea of presents all right, but no BB gun, no AFX racing track set, no hockey skates, no hockey stick and no BMX bike.
Where were the big toys? There were plenty of presents for me to open all right, but who wants books, who wants a Bible, who wants clothes, an Evil Knievel motorcycle, a snow sled, Mattel Electronic Football, board games, etc, etc? Somebody goofed. Somebody messed up. Santa forgot a few things.
As the morning excitement winded down and the activity moved into the kitchen for coffee and Christmas cake (for my mom and dad), I decided to put on my boots and walk over to my friend Robert’s house with my new snow sled and see what presents he received.
When I arrived, Robert was very happy and exited.
Over what? A pair of socks, mittens, slippers, coloring books, lincoln logs? No, like me, he also received a Bible for Christmas. A real nice leather bound, hand sewn binding, King James Bible. I still didn’t get it. Even after he showed me all the “Christmas” parts in the Bible about the birth of Jesus and all that stuff, I paid no mind. I was bored, So I pretended I had to go home, that breakfast was waiting.
Back then, it always seemed to snow on Christmas. A fresh foot of white packed dry powder always seem to blanket the ground on Christmas morning.
My older brother used to tell me that Santa brought the snow clouds from the North Pole, that it was special “Christmas snow.”
When I left Robert’s house I decided to sled down the hill in his front yard and into the street and walk back up our driveway. When I reached the street I heard tires spinning down the road. A car had gotten stuck in a snow bank. It was an old beat-up 1966 Dodge Dart, a real junker. So, I walked down to check it out.
When I reached the car, inside there was a family, three small children, a baby and their young father. He got out to try and push, but no way was that car moving on its own. The father seemed at his wits end. He was out of breath, the children inside were getting restless and the baby was cold and crying.
He saw me standing there but didn’t bother to ask a 10-year-old kid for help. I told him, “I can go get my dad.” He said, “okay, but please hurry”, the man was almost crying, I started to feel awkward. He cried out again, “please, hurry kid and get help.”
Everyone came out to help. My dad, my friend’s dad, my older brother and a neighbor all showed up. They rocked the car back and fourth to get it free. But in a foot of packed powder, that rear-wheeled drive old Dart wasn’t going much further before it would get stuck again. Quickly, both our dad’s offered to help out and give the man a ride. He was humble and accepted. Turns out he was on his way to the hospital to see his wife who was dying of cancer.
My mom and my friend’s mom offered to watch the children for this stranger including the baby while our dad’s gave him a ride to the hospital. The family only lived a few streets over. My friend and I and my brother knew the house. It was the junky house we called it, the one that was always dark on Halloween that we never went to.
So we all just kind of hung around most of the day while our dads were still at the hospital helping this guy out. Our mothers did fine watching those three kids and the baby. I can only imagine what the father, that poor man was going through, and on Christmas.
At my house in the next room I could hear my mom and my friend’s mom praying. They were asking God to help that man’s wife, to save her and heal her. I didn’t really understand what was going on. I was a confused kid that day. Everything happened so fast. One moment I was disappointed over what I got for Christmas and the next moment, I had strange kids in my house that my mom told me to play with and show my new toys to.
It started getting dark out as I could finally hear my dad’s truck pull up the driveway. He was still with my friend’s dad, my dad must have invited them over for Christmas dinner.
When they were walking along the pathway to our house, it was just the two of them. Immediately, my mom and my friend’s mom held each other crying. I knew something had gone terribly wrong. Right away they told me to go into the other room with the children. I could hear them crying and they were so choked up it was difficult for them to speak. Then I heard them say, “what are we going to do?”
“This young man just lost his wife on Christmas, and what about these children.”
“And a newborn,” my friend’s mom added.
I had those three children in the other room, one of which was probably seven or eight years old. He asked me, “is my mom gonna be okay?” I melted. Of course I didn’t know what to say. I suddenly felt like an adult, it was weird. As my Dad and Mr. Johanson, my friend’s dad, entered the house, they were surprised to see both women crying. So he quickly asked, “what happened?” “Did somebody get hurt?” “Where’s David?” Right away, as If I did something wrong.
Turns out, as I later learned, that Elanor, the woman in the hospital had a type of cancer in her heart and was waiting for a transplant and a donor heart had come in, and that’s why the man was so flustered and anxious and in a hurry to get to the hospital.
My dad spit it out all at once. I could hear him from the other room.
“His wife, Eleanor is going to be fine, Harry, the man we helped, was a wreck at the hospital, but they put the new heart in and it was a success. We would have been home much earlier but Harry begged us to stay, he was really messed up inside. He told us if his wife didn’t pull through he wouldn’t survive. We prayed right then and there with him.”
He said to my mother, “You should have been there Mary, it was a miracle. She was actually dead for a couple of minutes, then her new heart started beating. I thought Harry was going to lose it, then jump for joy, but he just sat there and wept, praising and thanking God. His wife Eleanor actually received a new heart for Christmas, what a gift.” And right there, I finally got it.

God Bless and Merry Christmas