A Melancholy Christmas | Laveda D. Rockford

 

The Lord placed it on my heart to author a little story for you. While Christmas is usually a wonderful time of the year, Dorthea has had a couple of lonely years. But all that is about to change. Follow along with Dorthea while her life changes in the most unbelievable way when she least expects it. 

A Melancholy Christmas

Dorthea woke up, looking around her dark room thinking of her disrupted sleep. She did not want to get out of bed yet and laid there thinking about her night. It was just like the last few nights since she received the call from her son, Jake. She woke up three times last night with aches and pains. She should make an appointment to see the doctor, she thought. She just hated to bother him at this time of the year. Today was the day before Christmas Eve and she always heard that a doctor’s office is busy before the holidays. So, she decided not to call and turned on the light beside her bed and looked on the floor for her shoes. After putting her shoes on, she draped her robe around shoulders, not concerned with putting it on. The sound of her shoes sliding across the floor, through the room, sounded lonely and sad, just like her mood.

This will be the second year without seeing her beloved son and his wife. The disappointment of not seeing her grandchildren was too much for her to think about. I should call the doctor, she thought as her aches and pains seemed to increase as she walked through the cold, empty house.

She arrived in the kitchen, turned on the light, and grabbed the coffee pot. She walked over to the sink and filled it with water. She did not bother looking out the window that is above the sink to witness the beauty of the changing colors of the morning sky. She was thinking about her son and his family again. She did not hear the birds outside calling to her either. She had not fed them since she received that call from Jake. Not that the birds depended on her little meager half slice of bread to get them through the day. They could tell something was wrong and they called to her from the branch outside the kitchen window, but she did not hear them.

Dorthea remembered Jake’s words like it was yesterday. “Hi, Mom. I have some bad news. Lucinda and I will not be able to come for Christmas again this year.” Then he said something about the new COVID restrictions and something about money being tight. She half expected it, but it still made her discouraged again this year.

“Lord, I don’t want to live like this anymore,” she said aloud.

Dorthea has been living alone for many years and with this pandemic, she wondered when she would see her son and his family again. They lived ten hours away and, yes, money was difficult to come by. She understood but it did not make her happy at all.

She made a cup of coffee and one piece of toast with an egg and sat it down on the breakfast table. When she sat down, she did not notice the sun rising above the horizon causing the frost to twinkle, sending their soft smiles her way. All she thought about was that she did not want to go to the soup kitchen today. She always volunteered somewhere around Christmas and this Christmas she chose the soup kitchen. She did not want to go.

After she said a prayer over her food, she ate, did the dishes, and found something warm to wear to the soup kitchen, all the while repeating to herself, “I’m doing this for you, Jesus. Give me strength.”

She got ready and looked at herself in the mirror, thinking, I do not look that good today. Then walked out the door to catch the bus to the soup kitchen.

 

© 2021 Laveda D. Rockford

 

To be continued…

 

Follow along and read this short story about Dorthea and A Melancholy Christmas.

A Melancholy Christmas is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to real people, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.