Dear family and friends. Please read this to your nearest and dearest when you gather for Christmas.
It is the Christmas of the Novel Coronavirus – Covid-19.
It is the Christmas of restrictions and a lockdown in Toronto.
Families cannot gather for Christmas dinner and celebrations.
Few are lucky and can be together. Many people are alone.
People cannot go out for their Christmas shopping. Many shops have been ordered closed.
You have to keep a distance of two meters from fellow human beings and wear a mask. Many stores and restaurants are telephone orders and pick up only. Many are worried about their work, paycheck, roof over their head and even next dinner.
So many are sick, many have caught the Mr. Nasty – Covid 19, especially older people in nursing homes.
Let us take a moment and think about it all.
We have so much still to be thankful for.
We have our health.
We have a roof over our heads and a warm room.
We have food on our table, we are not hungry.
There is no fear of falling bombs.
So instead of thinking what we could not do or what we do not have, let us count our blessings and rejoice.
I remember Christmas 1944 as a refugee in war-torn Germany. It was so different. We did not worry about what we did not have. We had our family of five together.
It was Christmas Eve. We had just arrived by train in the town of Bützow in Mecklenburg state in northern Germany, from southern Germany, with a stopover, a warm bowl of soup, and half a night of sleep in Berlin.
No bombings that night!
It was late at night when we arrived, around 10:00 PM or later. We left our two suitcases in the locked area of the station and walked, with Tom in the baby carriage, from the train station to a “Gasthaus”, a small hotel in town which was about 1.5 to 2 kilometres away. After two days of travel on the overcrowded trains we must have been a sorry sight. A little reluctantly, as I remember, the manager found us a small room with a double bed. I do not remember eating! We must have grabbed something from the kiosk at the station, if it was still open at this late hour. Besides, everything was rationed and you needed your coupons to buy even bare necessities. There was no heat in the room. Hot water bottles were warming up the bed which was covered with a wonderfully warm down comforter.
The four of us crowded onto the bed. Tom slept in the baby carriage.
We had arrived at our destination. We stayed there for a couple of nights. Where did we eat or what we ate – do not remember.
Our Christmas gift was having a place to sleep.
After the holidays Dad was able to contact the people he was to see.
We had undertaken the long journey from south to north on faith and trust. Dad had a letter from his German boss in Estonia to somebody in a workshop in Bützow. It said “This is a good man and worker. Hire him!”
It was a Christmas blessing – he was hired.
So to those who are able to gather together – rejoice in your good fortune. Modern communication helps you to keep in touch with those who cannot be with you on this day.
Those who spend the holidays alone, due to Covid- 19 or various other reasons – this too will pass. Think about your blessings.
Have peace in your heart for Christmas, and a healthy new year.
With much love and big hugs to everybody.
Signed,
Vanaema
