I guess we all have gifts from Christmas past that we remember fondly. I have had more than my share --from the handmade cards and gifts from my children and now my grandchildren to the hi-tech sort that bring me closer to living the sci-fi life Gene Roddenberry and Ray Bradbury captured on paper.
Each gift or memory of a gift evokes a miriad of feelings, putting me in touch with an event or an atmosphere or a circumstance or a person.
One year, my grandfather gave me a very different sort of gift: It was a sprite can filled with pennies. In fact, he did the same thing for my mom, my brother, both my kids and my husband. My kids emptied out their cans. Our son actually counted them and told us there were 203 pennies in his can. Jim and I never emptied ours out. They still sit on the bookshelf as a reminder of one of the "twilight" Christmases we were blessed to share with "Epaw".
He was a man of few words, so there was never any explanation as to why he filled the cans with money as a gift, but it is a reminder to me of a man whom I loved and who loved me and will miss until eternity swollows up death.
Each gift or memory of a gift evokes a miriad of feelings, putting me in touch with an event or an atmosphere or a circumstance or a person.
One year, my grandfather gave me a very different sort of gift: It was a sprite can filled with pennies. In fact, he did the same thing for my mom, my brother, both my kids and my husband. My kids emptied out their cans. Our son actually counted them and told us there were 203 pennies in his can. Jim and I never emptied ours out. They still sit on the bookshelf as a reminder of one of the "twilight" Christmases we were blessed to share with "Epaw".
He was a man of few words, so there was never any explanation as to why he filled the cans with money as a gift, but it is a reminder to me of a man whom I loved and who loved me and will miss until eternity swollows up death.
posted by Serena Voss at 9:18 AM
4 Comments:
It is amazing how gifts from those we long to see again stand out in our mind. My papa had over 40 grandkids so he could not afford much, but up until about our 12th birthday he gave us all a 50 cent piece. I never see one without thinking of him and longing to reunite with him. Have a blessed Christmas.
Donna,
I know how you must treasure that memory!
Your post reminded me of one of Mike Cope's articles in Wineskins: "The Quarter of Remembrance." Hope your family had a wonderful holiday!
Keith, funny you should mention Mike's piece, "Quarter of Rememberance". I have read it many times and have been blessed by it. I still can't read or hear it without being reduced to tears. It always inspires me to look upward, inward and outward.
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