I love Christmas! I know that during the Christmas season no matter how much you love the holiday, it is a very hectic time. Particularly in the senior housing industry it is a very busy time. Because of this, rather than publishing my next installment on Content Marketing I offer you one of my favorite inspirational Christmas Stories:
This will post while we are driving from Sacramento to Seattle to spend Christmas with our grown children.
Our son Kevin, who was 12 that year, was wrestling at the junior level at the school he attended; and shortly before Christmas, there was a non‑league match against a team sponsored by an inner‑city church, mostly black. These youngsters, dressed in sneakers so ragged that shoestrings seemed to be the only thing holding them together, presented a sharp contrast to our boys in their spiffy blue and gold uniforms and sparkling new wrestling shoes. As the match began, I was alarmed to see that the other team was wrestling without headgear, a kind of light helmet designed to protect a wrestler’s ears.
It was a luxury the ragtag team obviously could not afford. Well, we ended up walloping them. We took every weight class. And as each of their boys got up from the mat, he swaggered around in his tatters with false bravado, a kind of street pride that couldn’t acknowledge defeat.
Mike, seated beside me, shook his head sadly, “I wish just one of them could have won,” he said. “They have a lot of potential, but losing like this could take the heart right out of them.”
Mike loved kids‑‑all kids‑‑and he knew them, having coached little league football, baseball and lacrosse. That’s when the idea for his present came.
That afternoon, I went to a local sporting goods store and bought an assortment of wrestling headgear and shoes and sent them anonymously to the inner‑city church. On Christmas Eve, I placed the envelope on the tree, the note inside telling Mike what I had done and that this was his gift from me. His smile was the brightest thing about Christmas that year and in succeeding years. For each Christmas, I followed the tradition‑‑‑one year sending a group of mentally handicapped youngsters to a hockey game, another year a check to a pair of elderly brothers whose home had burned to the ground the week before Christmas, and on and on.
The envelope became the highlight of our Christmas. It was always the last thing opened on Christmas morning and our children, ignoring their new toys, would stand with wide‑eyed anticipation as their dad lifted the envelope from the tree to reveal its contents.
As the children grew, the toys gave way to more practical presents, but the envelope never lost its allure. The story doesn’t end there.
You see, we lost Mike last year due to dreaded cancer. When Christmas rolled around, I was still so wrapped in grief that I barely got the tree up. But Christmas Eve found me placing an envelope on the tree, and in the morning, it was joined by three more.
Each of our children, unbeknownst to the others, had placed an envelope on the tree for their dad. The tradition has grown and someday will expand even further with our grandchildren standing around the tree with wide‑eyed anticipation watching as their fathers take down the envelope.
Mike’s spirit, like the Christmas spirit, will always be with us.
I want to wish each of you a very happy Christmas
Steve Moran
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Finally: If you know anyone who is looking at emergency call systems I would appreciate the opportunity to talk with them about Vigil Health Solutions.
Very, very nice! Thank you for that story! Wishing you and your family the best!!
It is stories like these thatr keep the true spirit of Christmas alive! Thank you!
This is such an inspirational example of love and kindness. What a fantastic reminder that the greatest gift is love and concern for others – and the most rewarding.
What an inspiring story! Thanks so much for sharing this, Steve. Have a very Merry Christmas!!
From LinkedIn:
Thanks Steve for sharing!!!! It was very inspirational. Your message (story) is what Christmas is all about!! God Bless You….Shirley Pineda LNHA
Posted by shirley
What a beautiful family legacy and inspiration ! Thank you for sharing!
From LinkedIn Groups
I agree, Steve, it’s a wonderful tradition and here’s my tale. It’s a true story though some of the details have grown murky through the years. The year was 1981 but it might have been any year. My son had graduated from high school and had spent the months since June out of contact wandering the country somewhere out on the road. It turned out he was following the Grateful Dead.
We were worried. His mother and I had recently separated, and we knew that was traumatic for both our sons but especially for our younger son, the deadhead (some of you will know what that means; for the rest it has to do with fans of the Grateful Dead). I had always been close with my son and somehow I knew that wherever he was he was okay. He was intelligent and had good judgment.
Christmas promised to be a lonely occasion. I invited my mother and my family for the day but there was no knowing if they would accept. Marriage was considered sacred in our family. But much to my surprise my mother, my uncle and aunt, and my sisters and their families accepted and we all gathered together with a group of my friends in my New York apartment for the holiday. My older son, too, was there and I felt honored by his presence.
But the joy of the gathering was overshadowed by the absence of my younger son. We had no way of knowing where he might be. The guests asked me where he was and what I had heard from him, but I had no answers… we had had no news from him for many weeks.
The afternoon wore on and the winter dusk began to settle over the city. The festivities of the day were winding down. The guests were preparing to leave to make their way home when suddenly the door flung open and there was my deadhead son in the doorway, smiling that wonderful smile of his that can melt the winter chill.
I’ll never forget the love of that Christmas and the coming together that helped to heal the breach that had torn us asunder.
Merry Christmas to you, Steve, and to all Peace on Earth, Good Will to Humankind.
Posted by Jack
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