Originally Posted by indydebi

I'm going to slightly hi-jack this thread, but it does pertain to Christmas and how we view it, and how the way we look at Christmas now was forever changed ..... so my apologies in advance for the hi-jack.

My sister, Vicky, died last March. She not only had the rarest form of blood cancer that exists, but also had double kidney failure. She was also mentally handicapped. She died at 43, but was mentally 10-14 (so if you can imagine your 10 year old child going thru all of this......)

In the beginning of her cancer, my husband made the comment once about "Poor Vicky ... she's had a hard life." And I got to thinking about it (and this story always makes me cry!).

All of us as parents know the phrase "To see Christmas thru the eyes of a child." Well, Vicky was forever 10 years old. Vicky got to see Christmas thru the eyes of a child her entire life. And shouldn't we all be blessed like that?

I shared this story with a church congregation during a memorial service for Vicky. I was telling the "eyes of a child" story and continued with how one year my eldest daughter and I were complaining about Christmas .... about the shopping and the traffic and the money to spend and the lack of time and everything that goes with the stress of the holiday.

Then I got a message from home that Vicky wanted to know when we were coming to town because she had gifts for all of us.

And my daughter and I were instantly ashamed. Because in the midst of her chemo treatments .... in between hospital stays, and outpatient surgeries and everything she was going thru ... Vicky remembered what Christmas was about. She remembered that it was about sharing and being with family. She wasn't whining about the traffic and the shopping and the money and the lack of time...she wasn't whining at all. And God knows she had more to whine about than all of us! And somehow she still found time to do what was important to her .... shopping for Christmas gifts for her family. none of them were expensive or extravegant ... but they are precious because they were from Vicky.

So now we look at Christmas a little different....all because of Vicky.

We see Christmas .... forever .... thru the eyes of child.

Vicky was the, let's just say "not smart" one in our family. I was the one who got straight A's without even trying. But I learned more from Vicky than she or anyone else can ever imagine. She is my hero, who I will always admire and look up to.

(Ok...I have to go blow my nose now.)