Kristen Elizabeth Stories

Kathleena and her husband didn’t have much money and the cares of life had been too much for her husband. He spent most of his days despairing of life laying on their bed in their tiny bedroom with the curtains closed and lights off as to shut out any possibility of anything good finding him.

Every day when Kathleena went to the closet to choose her clothes for the day, her husband’s once always perfectly ironed Corrections Officer uniform, now always half hanging up in the closet crumpled on a hanger where he left it every morning until he had to put it back on to go to work every night, assured her of her deepest fear … that her husband believed there was no hope for life or for them. Kathleena missed her husband with all her heart, but no matter what she tried to do to help him, he just couldn’t escape from the despair of life that was ailing him leaving Kathleena feeling like she was all alone.

Kathleena made herself a cup of coffee as she always did every morning just before she left to go to work. On the way out the door she grabbed her umbrella and sipped her coffee slowly as she made her way to work through the cold December rain daydreaming of happy days of old before the cares of the world stole her husband from her.

Kathleena didn’t like her job, but her husband’s job didn’t pay enough to cover their bills, so she had picked up a job at the local nursing home working in housekeeping and laundry. Although Kathleena hated housekeeping and laundry, one thing she really loved about her job was spending time with the residents who lived there. She often found herself getting into trouble with her co-workers and supervisor because she took too much time talking to the residents, but she didn’t mind getting in trouble for that at all. Many of the residents didn’t get visitors often and they were sad and alone. Kathleena found great joy and comfort in comforting the lonely, sad hearts of the residents.

There was one resident that Kathleena always paid extra attention to. Her name was Ruth. In all the years that Kathleena had worked at the nursing home, she never saw any visitors come to visit her. Ruth was in her late nineties and slurred all of her words together when she tried to talk making it very difficult to understand what she was saying. But Kathleena didn’t mind. She would clean Ruth’s room extra slowly and just listen to all of her slurred words. Sometimes Ruth would seem too sad to talk, so Kathleena would tell her all about the happy things like flowers, gardens, bunnies and of course Christmas decorations since it was December until Ruth’s radiant, weathered smile lines would appear around her big brown eyes.

Ruth listened most carefully to Kathleena’s description of the lights on the Christmas tree. She couldn’t see well and wore large framed, thick lensed glasses that didn’t seem to help very much, but she could still see the lights on the big Christmas tree in the common room where she would often ask to sit for a while.

When Kathleena arrived at work that rainy December morning, she found that Ruth had become very ill and could no longer make it to the common room to sit in front of the Christmas tree lights, so she decided to surprise her with something special!

Kathleena knew that Ruth most likely wouldn’t live to see Christmas, so after work instead of going home, she walked a mile and a half to the little country store in town. She was overcome with exhilaration when she saw a tiny Christmas tree hiding behind a huge stuffed animal way up on a shelf on the far wall of the store! All it needed was some cute decorations and some big bulbed old fashioned Christmas lights which she found on a different shelf in the store.

When Kathleena saw the total cost for the items she suddenly felt lightheaded as her heart started to pound. She closed her eyes and took a few slow, deep breaths to help calm herself down. She remembered how last week she had needed a little extra fruit because she wasn’t feeling well and and when she brought it home and showed her husband, he became angry and agitated because money was so tight. He then retreated back to their small, darkened bedroom escaping what ailed him with sleep. Kathleena knew her husband wouldn’t approve of purchasing this surprise for Ruth and she didn’t want to give him more cause for despair, but Kathleena figured that Ruth needed some comfort and love more than she and her husband needed food and so she pushed aside her fears about her husband and excitedly paid for the items!

It was still early evening on the way back home from the country store, so Kathleena decided to stop in at the nursing home and bring Ruth her surprise. She found Ruth sitting in a recliner chair alone in her room. Her breathing was rattly, and she could barely open her eyes. Kathleena started to tell Ruth about the surprise. She took the small Christmas tree out of the shopping bag and set it on Ruth’s lap. Ever so gently Kathleena lifted Ruth’s frail hand and laid it upon the small Christmas tree. Ruth’s feeble hand moved slowly across the branches revealing her beautiful, aged smile lines once again. Kathleena tenderly took the small Christmas tree from Ruth’s lap and placed it on the dresser in the room and as she decorated it, she narrated everything to Ruth. After all the decorations and lights were on the tree, Kathleena turned the Christmas tree lights on. Ruth’s eyes slowly opened, and she gazed at the colored lights on the small Christmas tree. Kathleena walked over to Ruth and kissed her on the forehead and whispered to her, “Merry Christmas, Ruth.”. Ruth didn’t respond, she just kept gazing at the beautiful lights on her Christmas tree.

Kathleena walked the quarter of a mile back home on that dark and rainy December evening. When she arrived back home she noticed that the car was no longer in the driveway and figured her husband must have fixed it and had already left to go to work. She climbed the steep outside staircase up to her apartment, unlocked the door and walked into the living room. Tears streamed down her face, for in her living room was the brightest lit Christmas tree she had ever seen! She walked over to the tree and saw a note fastened to one of the branches. It read, “I know how much you love the lights…”.

Kathleena changed into her coziest pajamas and filled up the hot water kettle and put it on the stove to heat. She made herself a delicious cup of chamomile tea in her favorite Christmas mug that her husband had given to her so many years ago. She sat on their old beat up, stained couch gazing at the brilliantly lit Christmas tree and thought about the events of the day…of how her husband came home from work that morning filled with despair once again and just laid on the bed in the dark without even saying a word to her … of how the car wouldn’t start again and how she had wondered how they would ever be able to fix it … of Ruth and her beloved Christmas lights .. and of the brightest lit Christmas tree ever right in her very own living room speaking hope into her deepest fear. And unexpectedly, Kathleena found herself smiling holding tightly to her warm cup of tea drinking in a little Christmas hope of her very own.