Count Your Blessings Before They Fade
It was the first Christmas I remember
Maybe because it was 1944 and my dad lay wounded in a hospital
Shrapnel in his back from a German U-Boat attack
My uncles Julius and Louie were on ships in the South Pacific
And Uncles Art and Virgil were sailing somewhere
Their where about’s unknown
I remember seeing
Against a white shower on a all but deserted road
Reverend Risenhauer’s 1936 Lincoln Zephyr a navy shadow
Emerging out of the swirls of snow
The old folks, women and children waiting his arrival
Had sons, brothers, fathers and husbands battling for freedom
On foreign soils and seven seas
They’d came in cars, horse drawn sleighs and wagons
Families like the Griffins and their seven passengers
Ma and Pa German who’d picked up twenty parishioners along the way
All bundled up on the wagon bed their carols floating in the air
Small groups of walkers made their way against the stinging wind
And here and there a horse and rider could be seen
In the Mt Morris Bank’s second story meeting room
We gathered that Christmas Eve
I didn’t know then, that we were one of five such groups
From Our Savior Lutheran Church that the good pastor visited
On a circuit route because gas was scarce then
So he came to us using the gas donated with their ration stamps
I stood in front of the congregation a wee small girl
Dressed in red and shivering fright
To say my Bible verse
They gave us bags of peppermint and homemade taffy
And I wondered what I’d done to make my mommy cry
She told me she was wishing Daddy was there
As a slow tear baths my cheek
I count my blessings before they fade
Christmas came again the following year
I said my bible verse in church
And mama cried happy tears
The war was over, daddy and my uncles had came home
(clarice) 01/15/2012
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