A Christmas Eve Visit

You couldn’t have asked for a more perfect family Christmas Eve. There was a way too big fire in the family room, the family fav Christmas movie was on TV and everyone, (including the girls) were sipping some hopped up egg nog.

At the Christmas Eve service there had been a message about taking a risk to be kind. They had discussed what that meant on the way home and everyone committed to do some kindness without thinking about the cost to themselves.

This was some Currier and Ives, Norman Rockwell shit right there is what this was.

But they were a sweet family, raising children in a kind home, and there was nothing fake or pretentious about any of it.

Lucy, the youngest, who had the ears of a hungry owl was the first to notice the sound from the back door. ”What is that?, she wondered out loud as she parted the blinds to look at the back deck.

By now, everyone had heard the scratching and her mother, Anne, asked her what she saw out there. ”Oh my! It’s a big dog and I think he wants to come in!”

“Well, just leave him out there…” her father trailed off knowing it was already too late as she had thrown the door open and the big, hairy dog had bounded into the room like he owned the place, gave everyone an obligatory sniff and immediately laid down in front of the fire. ”Okay, let’s just get him outside and we’ll call animal control to come get him.” The father said this knowing the battle was already lost.

“Daddy!” All four girls yelled at once.

“It’s too cold!

“He’ll freeze!”

“It’s snowing!”

“No one will come on Christmas Eve!”

He looked over at his wife who just shrugged. ’Traitor’ he thought. ”Well fine. But the first sign of trouble, out he goes. And when we go to bed, he goes out in the garage.”

Trouble did not look to be in the offing, as he had not stirred from his self assigned spot by the fire. Actually, the only danger was that he would get sick as the girls were already tossing treats over to him.

When they went to bed that night, the dog, who they decided to call “Christmas Eve” was settled comfortably in the garage with a makeshift bed, and a pile of blankets. When they woke up the next morning, he was settled comfortably next to Lucy on her bed.

The day after Christmas they called a few shelters, posted on social media, and put up signs in some neighborhood stores. But a week went by and they didn’t hear from anyone. The dog was well behaved, asked when he needed to go out, and was too old and/or too lazy to cause any shenanigans. On the 10th day though, while the father (go figure) was taking Christmas Eve for a walk, a car pulled up and a lady in scrubs got out.

“Is that the lost dog from the Starbucks board? It’s really not my business and I don’t want to cause any grief but I think I know where he came from. He came from this neighborhood.”

The nurse went on to explain how an elderly patient in their long term care facility had been forced to give up his home, and more tragically his beloved dog. The dog had been brought to a shelter by a distant relative but given his age, it wasn’t likely he would be adopted.

“How long ago did this all happen?”

“The old man came in a little over a year ago.’

The father was shaking his head “no, it couldn’t be. We just moved into our house a few months ago. We bought it from the family of an elderly gentleman that had been forced to give it up…”

The nurse whistled “oh my…”

“Can we bring his dog over to see him?”

“Well, we don’t allow dogs inside, but you could meet on the patio. It’s cold though so it can’t be for very long.”

A week later, Stan, who never had a visitor since he arrived at the facility, was in his old house for a visit with his beloved dog and his new friends.

By Easter, they had recovered his favorite recliner from the estate collector that had bought the contents of his house, and despite all promises to his physician, kept a bottle of his favorite scotch at the ready. ”Don’t tell anybody.” They swore him to secrecy.

The girls, who had no grandparents, at first called him “Grandpa Stan” and then later just “Grandpa”. Sometimes the dog visits would last overnight, over the weekend, and on a few occasions, over a week. In fact, after learning how Stan and his late wife had enjoyed the ocean so much, the family brought him along on a vacation to the beach.  It was so far out of compliance with the rules of the home, that a number of staff members could have been fired several times over. Chief among the culprits was the Facility Director, who chose to turn a blind eye. She was more about the patients than she was about checklists, audits and ”Generally Accepted Medical Practices”.

For the next two years, “Grandpa Stan” was a regular visitor and came to be treated as a member of the family. Then one day, while visiting with the family, now HIS family, he began “not feeling right”. One of the conditions laid down by the staff was that they return him immediately if he started feeling poorly. In that way, he could get the proper medical care. The next morning they received a call from the nurse on duty that Stan had quietly passed in the night. When she heard the cry of grief from Lucy, who was listening in, she told Anne, “we never told you when you first met him he had been given at most three months to live. You gave him more life. And he was happy. God Bless You.”

Though Stan had no church home, he had accompanied the family on their rare visits to the church down the street. The same one they always went to for Holiday services. The pastor had come to know them and knew their relationship with Stan and so insisted that he host the service with no renumeration of any type required. The church was full. Though they did not know it, the family had been the subject of a sermon about how kindness and empathy does not come with a denominational approval sticker. The Facility Director had brought on extra shuttle drivers and anyone that could manage it was brought over for the service. Even Christmas Eve came along, though he slept through most of the service.

The family followed Stan’s wishes of being buried next to his wife, and the church took up a special collection to help them defray the costs. It was a bitter cold day and so only a few people were able to attend the graveside service. Among them was the Facility Director, a young woman named Amy. She thanked the family for what they did for Stan, and they thanked her for being flexible and kind hearted, and indeed taking a risk with her career. 

“You were taking quite the risk yourselves, getting involved first with the dog and then Stan.” She replied.

After the service, they were walking back to the cars when Amy caught up to them and said “You know, that’s my regular church. A few years ago, pastor gave a sermon on Christmas Eve about taking a risk to be kind. I thought about that sermon when you asked if you could take Stan home with you.”

Anne smiled and nodded. ”It was a good sermon.” Seeing that Amy was alone she offered “would you like to come over for a bite?”

“Sure. I’d like that. Oh, and by the way…he told everybody about the scotch.”

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