![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wyzwmn9444.live-website.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/charilie-brown-xmas-tree.jpg\")
<\/a>Sheldon is quiet on his way to the shelter. He confides in me as we are pulling into the parking lot that he\u2019s never had to accept charity before and not comfortable with it now. I fully understand. I have never been able to look a homeless person in the eye. I have always been consumed with guilt and the thought that there but for the grace of all the gods go I.<\/p>\nIn we go. My first impression was that we were entering a jail. We walked in thru the front door to be confronted with locked double doors and a \u201csecurity guard\u201d. Sheldon is pulling back so I tell the guard his story and the guard opens the locked doors to allow us into the shelter telling us to \u201cfind Rick\u201d.<\/p>\n
As we enter I am assaulted by a cacophony of sounds and smells\u2026.lots of them not pleasant. There is a riot of color and furniture and bodies everywhere\u2026there are people sleeping standing up against walls and on the stairs and tired used old blankets clutched in dirty little children\u2019s fingers.<\/p>\n
Slowly as I become accustomed to the \u201cambiance\u201d I begin to see Christmas in this room. There are bits of tinsel hanging from dirty stocking caps set jauntily over dirty faces. There\u2019s what can only be called a Charlie Brown Christmas tree in the corner and there are new socks and new gloves on many hands and feet\u2026and lots of the people that are awake are smiling. I don\u2019t understand.<\/p>\n
Across the room is the big serving window to the kitchen but I see no one on the other side\u2026as I start across the room I hear the unmistakable sound of dishes smashing to the floor and a resounding \u201cDamn it!\u201d from behind the wall. I peek around a see a harried fellow, in half a Santa suit picking up broken dishes and muttering.<\/p>\n
\u201cRick?\u201d I ask. This frantic man turns to me and blesses me with the biggest gap tooth smile and says\u2026\u201dyup\u2026hiya! What can I do for you?\u201d<\/p>\n
I explain Sheldon\u2019s story and Rick tells me no problem he can stay here over night. He then turns to Sheldon and says,\u201dI don\u2019t suppose you can cook?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d says Sheldon and I at once. Turns out that the volunteer church group that was to cook the shelter\u2019s Christmas dinner won\u2019t be coming because of the storm. Rick says that Christmas is always a banner time for the shelter food wise\u2026\u201dpeople assuage their guilt by giving at Christmas\u201d. The end result is that he has tons of food and no cooks.<\/p>\n
\u201cHmmmmmm,\u201d says I, \u201cmaybe I can help\u201d<\/p>\n
Long story short\u2026we have Christmas dinner for close to 200. Sheldon isn\u2019t a cook but he\u2019s a mean dishwasher and clean up kinda guy\u2026and we recruit a couple of people from the shelter and we are off\u2026 We have beef and turkey and mashed potatoes and stuffing made in pans instead of in the bird and spaghetti with sauce and chocolate pudding.<\/p>\n
We have Christmas Carols and laughter and hugs and tears and handclasps from dirty little fingers. By 10 PM I am completely and totally physically exhausted, sweaty and hot, hot, hot\u2026 but as I turn to survey the room I have an epiphany.<\/p>\n
Christmas is not about receiving the love from my family that I believe is my due. It truly is about the giving. In any way shape or form.<\/p>\n
Sheldon passed away in 1996 but I still hear from his daughter Janice\u2026once a year at Christmas. In the many years since this event occurred in my life, I\u2019ve sent this story out to online friends far and wide\u2026and as a result there are \u201cChristmas with Sheldon\u201d parties all over North America designed by people who have been affected by Sheldon\u2019s story to assist people that have \u201cless than\u201d we do. Not people we believe are less than us because we don\u2019t get to judge. But people that have less than us for whatever reason\u2026and they don\u2019t just happen at Christmas.<\/p>\n
And here I am all these years later understanding that Sheldon\u2019s plight could have occurred to anyone of us at any time in our lives. Sheldon coming into my life was a true blessing and a life changing moment and my telling of Sheldon\u2019s story to others is not my right but my responsibility.<\/p>\n
It is truly the best that I can do<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For years and years I too hated Christmas\u2026too much brouhaha in my books\u2026then I had a Christmas epiphany\u2026no small feat for a non-Christian\u2026but here goes I always put huge store in Christmas\u2026because I was raised in a huge family and … Continue reading