so i'm going to share what was one of the biggest parts... his story telling.
this was the first of my christmas stories.
Christmas - 1989
my memories of my great-grandfather are vague. but his reputation as a storyteller was a family tradition. i can't remember any of his stories, but i do remember sitting in his lap and listening to them. it's all kind of hazy - the house in atlanta, the chair, the man, and the small child, me.
my uncle neal was the next member of the family to assume the role of storyteller, and i do remember with great pleasure his uncle remus stories.
when his children were young, he started a new christmas tradition - the christmas story, a very personal gift for his young daughters. in his honor, and in honor of my scarcely remembered great-grandfather, i decided to adopt this tradition as my own, for my own sweet daughters.
i had already started a christmas story to begin this new tradition. it was one made to order for shosha. and for maura, too. all about christmas and chanukah, snakes, and mostly about a light shining in the darkness. but circumstances have dictated a different story, a true story - the story of the chrismas we said goodbye to lucy.
lucy was my six month wedding anniversary present to kerry. a sort of symbol of the commitment i had made to live with him through good times and bad. i really couldn't imagine any bad times - so enthralled was i at this wonderful man you girls call daddy - but life always holds both.
lucy's first name was patches. when she was a puppy, she was covered with black patches, and thus the name; but as she grew, the patches spread with her and finally ran together.
by the time i saw lucy's litter, there were only two puppies left and lucy was the runt, not only of the puppies but of the litter. i don't remember what the other one looked like because as soon as i saw lucy, i knew she was the one i wanted. she was so pretty!
the truth is out - i picked her the same way most men pick a date - i took the prettiest one. i didn't take into account personality or breeding. i picked lucy because she was a good looking girl.
later, lucy would claim the phrase "pretty, but dumb" as her very own. that is, she was never smart about doing what we wanted her to do. like come, for instance. she NEVER learned that. or sit, or down, or any of those things people want their dogs to do. you see lucy just wasn't very smart. or was she....
lucy was my first baby. and as such, she was spoiled. hard to believe, but the den sofa used to be lucy's favorite sleeping spot. needless to say, some things have changed. jambo has never known that privilege.
i'm not sure when we figured out that lucy couldn't see. it'd been a long hard year, but soon it became apparent that lucy was bumping into things. it came on her suddenly and it worried us; so we took her to the vet. he said it was an eye infection and we felt better.
but lucy didn't get better. she began to lose weight quickly. when lucy was not interested in food, we knew something was seriously wrong. food has always been of primary concern to our bow-legged daughter. (and to our long-legged daughter, too). so when lucy refused catfood and people food too, we suspected the worst.
the vet confirmed this after surgery. lucy had cancer.
we wanted lucy home with us and not in some strange cage; so i took the girls to get her. but lucy wasn't pretty any more. she was so thin, and the vet had shaved her hair for the surgery.
when maura saw her, she screamed in terror. we almost didn't make it home. you see, lucy, our beloved dog, looked frightening now. four year olds like things black and white. dogs are supposed to be warm and cuddly and cute. poor lucy. she looked so different.
but she was glad to be home. her tail was wagging when i got her out of the car. and in those last days, she never seemed to suffer much. it was hard on maura, but lucy never knew how scary she looked. she was just glad to be home.
it isn't often we have last words to say to those we love. jesus did. and we did with lucy. kerry and i were able to spend lucy's last two hours of life with soft words and touch. she died peacefully, knowing she was loved to the very last.
and isn't that what christmas is all about. loving and giving.
this god that we worship came to earth to be born in a stable, confined in the helpless and humble state of a human baby. when he was a man, he told his friends, "as much as ye have done it unto the least of these, ye have done it unto me."
well, lucy was the least of these by this world's standards, but we loved her. and in loving her, i think we knew something more of god's love.
this story doesn't have a snake, or mention chanukah, but i think it is mostly about a light shining in the darkness. our grief is a darkness. but there is no darkness so dark that god's love cannot shine in the midst of it.
so this christmas, and chanukah, as we light the candles and as we burn the christmas tree lights, let us remember the light of god's love and the love we shared with lucy for ten good years.
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