Best Christmas Ever

     November was a lousy month; my Dad took off to God knows where to "find himself".  This was after losing the family home and business  because he did a "favor"  for one of his friends and cosigned a loan that was not repaid.  Then he moved all of us, himself, Mother and seven kids to a small town to "start over".  After just two months he took off, leaving us to fend for ourselves.

     My Mother worked as an ICU nurse, I was seventeen and worked, as well as being a senior in high school.  The six younger kids ranged from nine to fifteen and attended school.

      We were living in a rental house that was more than a century old, no insulation, an eighty year old furnace that had been converted from coal to oil to natural gas.  It was singularly inefficent and costly to run.  The house was never truly warm, difficult for us, we were desert rats, used to seventy degree winter days, not snow, sleet and serious cold.

     We had one vehicle, a Chevy Suburban, every morning, all of us piled in, I dropped Mother at the hospital, the four little kids at the grade school, two sisters to junior high and then drove to high school.  After school, it was pick up at the grade school, then junior high and the Mother at the hospital; everyone home, change my clothes and walk over to work.

     We were surviving, until Thanksgiving week; Tuesday night, Mother didn't come out of the hospital to go home.  After about an hour, one of the nurses Mother worked with came out to let us know, Mother was critically ill, in ICU and the doctor needed to speak to me.  I put my fourtten year old sister in charge, took my purse and car keys( the fifteen year old was untrustworthy and not useful.) I went in to the hospital to hear the news that my Mother had a very severe pneumonia and bronchitis and was not responding to treatment.  All I could do was tell her I loved her and I would take care of the kids, even though she was unconscious, I hoped she would still hear.  Then I took the kids home, changed my clothes, went to work at the diner.  I told the diner owner, he was understanding.  I told him I needed as many hours as I could get; he gave me as many extra hours as he could.

      Since we no longer had Mother's checks, I wasn't approved to take them, My checks had to be saved for rent and electric; my tips bought gasoline and groceries..  Groceries were very sparse, bread was too expensive, so I made biscuits, until I ran out of baking powder, then I made flour and water biscuits, this is what the kids took to school every day, sandwiches on biscuits, one can of tuna split among the six kids, or 4 eggs among the six.  breakfast was rice or oatmeal with powdered milk, no sweetening.  If it wasn't for the hippies that hung out at the park, there wouldn't have been dinner much of the time.  The hippies would go over to the entrance to the truck route, there was a steep curve and the small open trucks that served the town often lost part of their load.   One day they came with four fifty pound bags of pinto beans, or a box of apples, a crate of lettuce.

     Thanksgiving was not a day I felt very grateful, we had pinto beans and flour and water "tortillas".  After dinner, I went up to see Mother, she was still in a coma.  The doctor told me he doubted she would survive, partly because she was fighting the breathing machine so much.  Then he asked me  if I wanted to sign a DNR for her.  It never occured to me that the hospital didn't realize I was only seventeen; I only knew it was what my Mother would want; we had often talked about it, being kept alive on machines was a great fear for her. 

     So much went through my mind, I was seventeen, I had six younger siblings to care for, how could I manage?  But I loved my Mother fiercely, and I signed the papers.  Then I sat beside her hospital bed and told her I signed the papers so they wouldn't keep her alive on machines.  She seemed to hear me ,and stopped fighting the breathing tube and fell calmly asleep for the first time, according to the nurses.

     Instead of getting worse, Mother began to improve, very slowly, but still improving.  I continued to visit her every day, the highschool left me skip the final period, study hall, so I could visit her before I picked up the kids and went to work.

     The weather turned very nasty, snow and sleet.  I dug the tire chains out of our old camping gear and had a rough time. but I got them on!  The house was so cold, I could not afford to pay the gas bill, so on Sundays, after I got off work,  I would take the two oldest boys and my fourteen year old sister to the woods, the boys would fish while my sister and I gathered wood.  A good Sunday was when the boys caught some fish and the Suburban was full of wood.

     The house had two fireplaces, one upstairs, one down.  The upstairs fireplace was in my bedroom, I would build a fire in the fireplace, bank it, the kids all slept in my room on mattresses we drug off their beds, in their sleeping bags.  It was at least a bit warmer.  In the morning, I would get up first and build the fire up to make it warmer for the kids to dress while I went downstairs to make breakfast.

    The ninth of December was the twins tenth birthday.  The diner owner had me bring all the kids in for dinner, he made a cake for the twins.  It wasn't the same without Mother.

     As December moved along and most of the world was finishing Christmas preperations, we were still in survival mode.  On the fourteenth , the hippies came in with a broken case containing four very large frozen turkeys.  This was wonderful, the lack of protein had been taking a toll on all of us.  Mother continued to improve.

     December twentieth, I go in to visit Mother; not only is she conscious, but sitting up in a chair, yet still very weak.  She tells the doctor, she is going home on Christmas Eve to be with her children; the doctor is doubtful; but I know my Mother.  She will be home.

     On Sunday, when we are doing our weekly wood run, I relent and cut a small Christmas tree and let the kids decorate it.

     Christmas Eve Day, I haven't told the kids Mother is coming home.  My Grandmother had sent three big boxes, I put them in the car, and tell the kids I am going to visit Mother, and we will open the boxes only if everyone is at home and the house is still clean when I get home.

     At the hospital, Mother is ready to go, she already has her  paychecks, I load her into the car; one of the nurse's gives Mother a big box of homemade cookies and candy for Christmas.  On the way home. Mother has me stop at the bank to deposit her checks and get some cash back; then to the drugstore, it was open, and spend one dollar on each of us.

     Finally, we are home, the kids come bubbling out of the house, eager to see what Grandma had sent, until they realize, Mother was home; the boxes flee from their thoughts.  Mother was bouyed into the house on a wave of joyous children.

      We have dinner in the front room, with the fireplace; turkey, rice and beans and lettuce; with cookies for dessert.

I make a bed for Mother on the couch, her bedroom is too cold; all of the kids drag sleeping bags downstairs to bask in the warmth of Mother while they slept on the floor.

    I keep an eye on the fire all night, so Mother doesn't get chilled; watching her sleeping ont he couch with the kids on the floor all around; I kinow, this is the best Christmas ever!

   

Reviews

[watch_the_world]

very good, thanks for another amazing write xD

[raining]

This is so good, it inspires. Are you going to continue on with this narrative? It is really worth publishing. Thanks, Raining