HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Lucknow Sentinel, 1978-12-13, Page 38o --
Page f Lacknow Sentinel, Wednesday, December 20, 1918
The loneful at Christmas
Christmas delights the child-
ren whose eyes are wide with
wonder and for the parent its a
coming to know that Christmas
is never the same without child-
ren. It's a homecoming for
grandparents whose families
have grown and moved out on
their own and for lovers it is a
time of sharing the meaning of
Christmas together.
But for the lonely no time of
the year is more grim.
For those who lost a loved one
this past year, there will be an
emptiness this year that not
even the merriment can fill.
There are those who must
spend Christmas alone with the
ghosts of their Christmases past.
For them the carols are
merciless and the silent night
forever too silent. The mistletoe
is a sick joke and the candles
cold comfort.
Even the parents of small
children get depressed at Christ-
mas. There is a distaste for the
season's expense, nuisance,
, greed and commercialism. And
in January the number of
suicides will take a sharp
increase as it has in years past.
A lonely Christmas is playing
Santa alone; no one special to
buy a present for;, the memory of
that romantic Christmas spent
with a lover drinking wine by the
Christmas tree; the memory of
children, who have long since
grown up and moved away,
waking you at four in the morn-
ing, with the excitement, that
Santa had indeedcome; sitting
alone with a Christmas dinner of
hotel turkey or with .a radio in a
room, wh e of a creature stirs.
This Chris as, as every
Christmas,,there are people who
will be alone. To them, we say
Merry 'Christmas, or at° least,
may your Christmas be merrier
than you expect; the widows and
widowers; the old whose child-
ren have lost touch with them;
the divorced parents who will
not see their children this year;
children who will not see a
parent they'd rather see even
more than Santa; college stud-
ents whose homeland is so far
away they must spend Christ-
mas among the echoes of .an
empty dorm; those in jail; those
on the road; trappers in cabins
and sailors at .sea; oil drillers on
site; losers at love; the last
survivors of families and the new
Vietnamize immigrants who are
spending their first Christmas in
a new, homeland.
I remember Christmas as a
child. Grandma got red flannel
pyjamas and she put them on
over her clothes to see if they
would fit and my uncle played a
kbz
2
shepherd in our pageant wear-
ing an old felt hat of grandpa's ,
and carrying a mop for a staff.
They were touches of merri-
ment that as memories got me
through lonely times at Christ-
mas.
When I got older, it was the
children waking me, in the
middle of the night to open their
presents, on the promise they'd
go back to. bed until morning,
after they saw what Santa.
brought and an unexpected
invitation to dinner at The Mill.
May something unexpected
bring some merriment to the
loneful this Christmas, like
looking out your kitchen window
and seeing teenagers carolling
to the senior citizen next door;
an invitation to dinner or a pair
of red flannel pyjamas., for
Grandma to model over her
clothes to everyone's delight.
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Sleigh bells ring
There wasn't enough,snow for sleighing, but shay ride on a wagon was
just as much fun. The children of the Lucknow District Kinsmen and
Kinettes held their Christmas party on Sunday afternoon mid J!m
Aitchison, West Wawanosh, brought his team to town to take them for
rides around the village, (Sentinel Staff Photo]
The Lucknow Sentinel
LUCKNOW, ONTARIO
"The Sepoy Town"
On the Huron -Bruce Boundary
Established 1873 - Published Wednesday
Published by Signal:Star Publishing Ltd.
Sharon J. Dietz - editor
Anthony N. Johnstone - advertising and
general manager
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Business and ,Editorial Office Telephone 5282822
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