I’ll wager at the very end a body realizes the Lord has already shown Himself. And it’s been a comfort: to think of that shine taking away all the spooky feeling. And I imagined that when He came it would be like looking at the Baptist window: pretty as colored glass with the sun pouring through, such shine you don’t know it’s getting dark. ‘I’ve always thought a body would have to be sick and dying before they saw the Lord. ‘You know what I’ve always thought?’ she asks in a tone of discovery, and not smiling at me but at a point beyond. “Satisfied, sun-warmed, we sprawl in the grass and peel Satsumas and watch our kites cavort… ‘My, how foolish I am!’ my friend cries, suddenly alert, like a woman remembering too late she has biscuits in the oven.

This is the scene which has stuck with me over the years. On Christmas morning they discover they have each made kites and head for a meadow to test their gifts. In the days leading up to Christmas they make decorations and craft gifts for each other in secret. Buddy and Sook collect pecans and buy whiskey with pennies saved to bake fruitcakes to send to people they have met, or not, including Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. One of the authors I discovered was Truman Capote and his short story, A Christmas Memory, is an annual “must read” for me at this time of year.Ī very autobiographical tale set in the American South of the 1930s tells the story of a boy named Buddy living with poor relatives, including an eccentric cousin, Sook, who is his best friend. As an employee I took advantage of my borrowing privileges and went on a literary journey that set the foundation for my passion for reading to this day.

One of the benefits of starting my library and archives life as a shelver in the Humanities Library at MIT was exposure to some great writers.

A christmas memory story