Cry, my beloved people

Christmas Part 82

"Tracey signed the contract, she is very excited about all of this.  I hope it all will work out well for her."  Linette said when Gregory joined her on the bench in the garden.

"When you do something to help others, God bless us more than we can imagine, that's why I believe with my whole heart that this will be a major success.  You know you are an amazing girl, you are going through such a tough time and you still think of others."  He said as he looked into her green eyes, he lost himself in her kind and adoring gaze.

"You are such a positive influence and showed me the real beauty of life, how can I not be kind to other people, when all you do is to be kind to me."  She said in a serious tone, not breaking eye contact with his lively brown eyes.

He smiled at her and took her hand as he said:  "I'm the lucky one, I dreaded the long and lonely holiday and what did I find?   A beautiful kind girl with a heart of gold."

"Talking about that, my aunt asked if you will be able to spend Christmas with us.  She invited Christa's boyfriend too, we don't want to spend Christmas all by ourselves."

"That will be nice, Father John is going to spend his day with doctor Lance and his family.  That means that I won't be all alone for Christmas.  I just want to have my ice cream meeting with Jessica after the service, which reminds me I still have to buy her a Christmas gift."

"We can't miss that, let's go and do some Christmas shopping before it gets too busy,"  Linette said and stood up.

"Speaking of Christmas, would you like to put some flowers on your mom's grave on Christmas day?"  Gregory asked.

"I would love that, but I don't want to go on my own, would you join me?"

"I would love to join you, then I can put some flowers on my mom's grave too."

"I would ask my aunt to take us there after church, it will be save if we all go together and I think she would also like to put flowers on her sister's grave."

They reached a bookshop and Gregory bought his sister the story of "Snowhite and the seven dwarfs," then he bought Father John a new diary and another four smaller diaries, two of them were beautifully decorated with flower patterned paper.  Linette bought Jessica another story of Winnie The Pooh.

After he walked  Linette home, he went back to the bookshop and bought Linette the story of "Black Beauty," an amazing story about a horse.  He bought bags for all the presents.

After the Christmas service with the beautiful message from Father John that urged everybody to make space for the child Christ in their lives and to give, rather than to receive,  Gregory and Linette took Jessica for ice cream.

They all hugged and kissed and she clapped her little hands in excitement when she saw her presents.  "Now I have a lot of books to read and they will look so pretty on my bookshelf."  She said and hugged Gregory and Linette again.

They said goodbye and "Happy Christmas" to Jessica when her grandmother came to fetch her.

Then they left for the graveyard to put the flowers on their mother's graves.  They stood for a few minutes in silence at each grave, holding each other close, while they cried their own silent tears.  They felt comfortable in the presence of each other.  Being there for each other made the pain bearable.