One Christmas Day some years ago
Three boys and I tramped through the snow
Intent on bringing Christmas cheer
To some secluded soul that year.
So to a nursing home we went,
A place where lives were almost spent,
To see if we could find a trace
Of Christmas spirit in that place.
And as we climbed a set of stairs,
That led up to that world of theirs,
Through frosty windowpanes we spied
A sad old lady there inside.
So as we passed through that front door,
We wondered what might lay in store.
What would we find there tucked away
This special Christmas holiday?
And as we walked into that room,
It had the feeling of a tomb.
We saw that lady, old and gray,
Just sitting there that Christmas Day.
She had a blank and lifeless stare
And seemed to be without a care,
All wrapped up in an ancient shawl
Awaiting there for Death to call.
I hesitated to intrude
Upon that tranquil solitude,
But we had made a solemn vow
To brighten up her day somehow.
So to prevent undue alarm
I softly touched her on the arm,
She then returned a vacant stare
To contemplate us standing there.
Confused in her befuddled mind
She drifted back and tried to find
Some names she knew in bygone places
She could put with these strange faces.
She drew me over to her side,
And in those misty eyes I spied
A Christmas from some bygone day
With her and friends in horse drawn sleigh.
As she reached out a withered hand
And all those many decades spanned
That stretched between those boys and her,
I sensed old mem'ries start to stir.
Then each boy took his turn in place
To be wrapped up in her embrace
As she recited some old rhyme
Of Christmas in some other time.
And you could see her joyful tears
As she recalled her younger years
When she had children of her own
Way back before she was alone.
Her boney hands, so thin and frail,
With desperate grip they told the tale,
As she then clung to those three boys
Like some small child with brand new toys.
Those simple lines of Christmas cheer,
Remembered from some long past year
Kept falling from her trembling lips
As back through all those years she slips.
And as I listened to each word,
Some feeling deep within me stirred,
For we had just become the cast
Of some white Christmas, long since past.
Then as we left her in that chair,
All sound asleep, I said a prayer;
For we received and gave, some say,
God's greatest gift that Christmas Day
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