"My Glowing Fire..."
"What's wrong dear?" Rachel sweetly asked. The woman tearfully
replied, "I can't mark this menu knowing that my mother and four
children will have no Christmas dinner."
My sister-in-law,
Rachel had just had a baby and was still in the hospital getting her strength
back. In the bed next to her was another little mother. They began
talking as they nursed their new babies. A nurse had walked in and asked
them what they would like to eat the next day.
Rachel listened as this young mother explained that they had just moved there
from a nearby town. With what little money they had, they had barely been
able to rent a small cabin in the pines of Groom Creek, near Prescott,
Arizona. Her husband had left several days before to bring back their
last load of belongings. He was still gone. The weather was so bad
that all traffic had been stopped. The roads were closed, which meant
that he wouldn't be able to get home for Christmas.
It was Christmas Eve 1944, when Rachel was released from the hospital and taken
home to the ranch. The first thing she did was to tell Mother (my Grandma Tenney) about this little mother.
Mother replied, "We'll see what we can do." That always meant
that she would find a way to do it. The problem she faced was that there
was no phone at the ranch. This meant that she wouldn't be able to get a hold
of Rachel's husband, Boyd, until he drove up from the feed store after
work. That would be too late to do anything. Mother prayed that the Lord
would help make a way possible to help out this little stranded family.
As if in direct answer to her prayer, one of Boyd's workers, a man named Carl,
drove up with the wood and coal truck. Mother ran out to stop him before
he returned.
Quickly she wrote a
letter of explicit instructions and asked Carl to make sure that Boyd read
it. Boyd was so busy that most of the time he tended to forget
things. "Get a hold of him by the lapels of his jacket like
this," Mother said as she grabbed Carl's coat with both hands.
"Once you've gotten his attention say to him, "Your mother wants you to
read this letter right now, and do something about it." When Carl met up with my brother Boyd, he did exactly
as Mother had instructed and Boyd read the letter and set
to work.
The
first thing he did was to call me. I lived in town and I had a
telephone. "Sis, I need your help," he informed me. He
then read me the letter from Mother. Included in the letter was a list
that Rachel had provided with the names and ages of the little mother's
children. I knew exactly what to do.
It was three p.m. and time was of the essence, for it was
Christmas Eve. I immediately called the Relief Society President and told
her of the plight of this little family. Within moments, phones began
ringing as the word went out through the visiting teachers to the members of
the branch. They were instructed to ask the families to bring anything
they could donate for Christmas to the feed store by six o'clock that
evening. That only gave everyone three hours.
It was amazing to see
how much people united in a common goal can accomplish. By six o'clock
the families responded with gifts for everyone. There were dolls for the
girls and toys for the boys, along with a complete turkey dinner. Someone
had taken their own turkey right out of their oven and given it to this needy
family. It was a heart-warming experience for me to witness this outpouring
of love.
The truck was loaded with the items for this family. When Boyd arrived at the ranch, he loaded the rest of the truck with wood
and coal to take to keep the cabin warm. "The roads are in terrible
condition," he announced, "We'll never get a truck into that
cabin now. We'll wait until early morning when the snow and slush have
frozen."
So, at three o'clock on Christmas morning, Mother and Boyd
carefully drove the truck over ice-crusted roads to the cabin. The spirit
of Christmas illuminated their hearts as they drove through the moonlight night
with the moon glittering off the frozen snow. Before they got in
sight of the cabin, Mother had Boyd stop the truck and put on a Santa suit she
had rounded up. They entered the yard area and quietly knocked on the cabin
door.
The
grandma and all the children were asleep in the same bed. There was no fire.
There was absolutely no more wood. They had gathered every stick and
broken off every branch they could reach within walking distance. They
were freezing to death! The only way they could stay warm was to get in the same
bed and combine all of their body heat.
Boyd knocked a little louder this time. He heard a fumbling
noise and then saw the glow of a freshly lite kerosene lamp
illuminate the inside of the cabin. The grandma opened the door to see
Santa Clause standing in his red suit with arms laden with presents. Within
moments all the children were at the door. "I told you he'd
come," the littlest one yelled when she saw Santa. "Grandma,
Santa Clause DID find our cabin! Heavenly Father answered our
prayer!"
The grandmother was
overcome. "My little grandson would not give up hope that Santa
would find us," she explained. "I tried to discourage him, but
he never gave up the faith." She wept.
Santa brought in the gifts and then returned with a fully-trimmed Christmas
tree. Mother acted as Santa's helper by bringing in the turkey
dinner. Boyd quickly started a fire. It wasn't long before the fire was glowing and
the cabin was filled with warmth and love. Mother and Boyd left as the
family settled in to spend a Christmas they would never
forget. A very concerned father returned three days later to find all well after the roads were finally
opened.
What happened that Christmas morn was truly a "gift" to all. I
think of the sacrifice that was made in behalf of those less fortunate and I am
moved to tears. We never were able to find out who gave up their turkey
dinner for this needy family. Whom ever it was truly followed the
Savior's counsel found in Luke 14:13. "But when thou makest a feast,
call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind: And thou shalt be
blessed..."
The Lord will
always bless us as we reach out and serve those less fortunate. As I
remember this touching Christmas scene and the immediate response the members
of our branch gave, the words of a familiar hymn burn deep within my soul. "I cannot see another's lack and I not share, my glowing fire, my loaf
of bread, my roof's safe shelter overhead, that he too may be
comforted."
In my life I've seen many acts of service, but none
have touched me so deeply as the experience that happened one Christmas day,
over fifty years ago.
--
Eudora Tenney Patterson, (my aunt) mother of five, grandmother of 28
This story made me cry!!!
ReplyDelete