Among the many joys of the Christmas season are Christmas cards. Sending them. Receiving them.
Lesia and I always include a note along with our cards chronicling events during the previous year. We greatly appreciate receiving similar notes from friends; especially from those we haven’t seen for quite a while.
We are somewhat disappointed when no notes are included. We know it’s a hassle to produce one, but if we haven’t seen people for many a year, a simple “Lewis and Susan” only tells us that our friends are still alive. We yearn for more. Tell us what you’ve been doing. Where have you been? How’s your family?
We especially welcome letters from priests we have known through the years. Father Godwin, a Nigerian priest we got to know and love when he was assigned to Christ the Teacher Church in DeKalb, Ill., sent us a newsletter describing his work at his new church. I’ll never forget one of his homilies emphasizing the need to be our true selves in life, on being the unique “you” God meant you to be. “If you can’t be you,” he asked, “who will be you?”
Another priest who sends us annual notes is Msgr. George Appleyard, who helped us put together a Ukrainian Marriage Encounter (M.E.) weekend in Pittsburgh many years ago. Now semi-retired, he wrote about discovering many fascinating facts while working on his family tree and during a trip to Cordoba, Spain, to attend a family wedding. He described attending mass in the huge La Mesquita, the Catholic cathedral built in the center of a former mosque by Spanish monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella after they reconquered the city.
Many of our notes come from M.E. couples we met during our 15 years with this wonderful ministry. Letters were initially devoted to sons and daughters. Today, grandchildren and travel are the focus. The prize for world travel this year goes to a couple who spent time in India.
Some letters we receive are informative, relating facts and events. Others are more creative. Sometimes, a recent family photo is enough. It reminds us of the flight of time and of the love in the lives of our friends.
A couple that attended the first M.E. weekend Lesia and I ever presented attended our 50th wedding anniversary celebration. Bill is a retired American Airlines pilot, Anita a retired AA stewardess.
Two Ukrainian dentists who presented Ukrainian M.E. weekends with us in Sokal, Ukraine, let us know that they’ve cut back on their dental practice. One of them is now the director of periodontics at Midwestern University Dental Institute. Life goes on.
Not all letters describe happy events. A couple with whom we often presented weekends quoted Abraham Lincoln in their letter. “I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go.” They shared the feeling when they discovered that their newborn grandson lost an eye to a rare cancer. “He’s cancer-free now and remains in our prayers.” And in ours as well.
“Our town of Weed, Calif., made the national headlines September 15,” began the letter of Lesia’s cousin. “It burned! Weed Library + 150 structures reduced to ashes… No loss of Life. Like the Phoenix bird, Weed rises again! Local community quickly rallied to the cause, sharing much from their hearts. LOVE prevailed?” Their home was spared. Despite the tragedy, their letter ends on a positive note. “Since our backyard is the lake we are happy! Our granddaughters (2+ and 6+) are a major and continuing source of delight and pride of us! Life is GOOD here in Mt. Shasta’s shadow!!”
We always enjoy hearing from Tony and Danute Mazeika, a Lithuanian American couple we got to know during the Office of Special Investigations (OSI) probes of Ukrainian and Baltic Americans for their alleged Nazi war crimes. Tony led the Baltic community effort to counter OSI defamation of his community during this infamous period in American history.
Notes from family are always fun to read. Having taken a position with Kishwaukee Community College near their house in Sycamore, Ill., the Chicago Kuropases plan to move back to corn country. “Following the success of last year’s hit “Kuropalypse Now,” their letter began, “plans are in the works for a sequel which is slated to begin in the summer of 2015. The new project will be loosely based on several popular TV/movie hits, including “Back to the Future,” “Green Acres” and “Airplane.” Lesia and I are delighted they will be living in our area again.
Perhaps the most touching letter this year was from of one of Lesia’s former colleagues, a male kindergarten teacher, who titled his four-page letter “It Looks Just Like Him”: The letter began: “The first day of school I was watching my kids on the playground and noticed one of my boys. He is a ‘tippy-toe walker.’ He has a muscular situation with his feet and always walks on his tip-toes.” The kid fell down often, always laughing. getting up and saying, ‘Thank you, Jesus.’ ”
I cannot do justice to the entire letter in this column, but suffice it to say that teacher and student grew quite fond of each other during the year; the teacher, who began calling his student “Dusty,” provided curriculum modifications, often working one-to-one with Dusty. Whenever Dusty succeeded, he would just smile, lean back and say, “Thank you, Jesus.”
The letter mentioned a number of poignant moments with Dusty and concluded: “Oftentimes at the Christmas season I think to myself, ‘I wonder who Jesus looked like?’ And all I have to do is look at Dusty – or any of the rest of my crew – and tell myself, ‘He looks just like them!’ Thank you, Jesus.” I was deeply moved.
So, dear reader, think about including a letter with next year’s Christmas greeting. Share your life, the good and the bad; your true friends will appreciate it greatly.