Christmas is the time his wife misses Hubby the most.
After being together for over 52 years, there is an understandable gap in this woman’s heart and existence. This time of year is so difficult because the man had Santa’s soul. After all, who embodies the spirit of loving and giving better than Santa and Hubby.
The human heart is a complicated organ.
Oddly enough, we are not referring to the atria or ventricles. When people talk about the heart, they mean the emotions that afflict or bless humans. With that in mind, it is undeniable. Our emotions do cause us to be even more complicated than the actual organ.
Hubby loved to make or buy, and give presents. In previous columns, we mentioned how his wife bought Christmas gifts on sale during the economically lean years throughout the year and stashed them in the gift closet.
This was BC, before children. But our nieces and nephews benefited from Hubby’s giving nature. Whenever children visited our home, the Santa-hearted man gave away yet another toy until the closet was bare.
What saved our Christmas budget was the closing of a nearby Fed Mart Store. We bought about $600 worth of toys for around $200.
We piled the back of our F350 pickup with the treasure trove of toys and drove to visit our families in Oklahoma. As we passed highway patrol cars, this lady had the urge to roll down the window and shout, “Merry Christmas.” Fortunately, common sense overrode the impulse.
That was one of many memorable Christmases over the years. Later, when our children asked about the existence of Santa, they always received the following answer. “Santa is the spirit of loving and giving.” And, that dear reader, will always be accurate.
Hubby and his wife always had fun wrapping presents. Fortunately, Hubby did most of the wrapping. He learned gift wrapping in the Army from a lady in his medical unit. She had professional wrapping skills.
Unlike his wife, who tended to use the better part of a roll of scotch tape to wrap one gift, Hubby’s wrapping talents were not only artistic but frugal as well. He managed to gift-wrap several presents using a scant amount of tape. Based on the boxes his wife wrapped, we should have bought stock in sticky tape. Her packages were unmistakable because the lumps of scotch tape were impossible to hide.
When this writer faced the gift wrapping process this year, she recalled how much fun she and Hubby had preparing for the holiday. Then suddenly, the grief of losing him and the loneliness hit her anew.
If we pay attention, the holidays are not only filled with joy but also sadness. We hear of the passing of friends and relatives during that time, and somehow those deaths make a more significant impact than at other times of the year.
Statistically, people are more likely to die of natural causes between December 25 through New Year’s Day than any other time of the year. It is logical to assume such deaths are due to the colder weather and resulting flu or other health complications.
“Josh Knight, a research fellow at the University of Melbourne in Australia, and his co-authors wrote that …there is no apparent correlation between … Christmas holiday effect and the impact of temperature.” He theorized, “that terminally ill patients may be hanging on to spend the holiday with their loved ones and then feel ready to let go and say goodbye.”
“The ability of individuals to modify their date of death based on dates of significance has been both confirmed and refuted in other studies, however, it remains a possible explanation for this holiday effect.”
The full power of the mind is still mostly uncharted territory. If we pay close attention to numerous examples, humans can often soar above and beyond what we assume is possible.
We control our destiny beyond our wildest imaginings. Possibilities await us.