Christmas memories

December 19, 2012

Washington, Iowa

To the Editor:

It was the first Christmas after my husband John passed away. He and I always put the Christmas lights up on the outside of my salon the first weekend after Thanksgiving. The tree in the planter was a crooked mess and the tears began to flow. How could this be a Merry Christmas without John? God help me get the salon decorated and lit up!

I began the process of putting up five strings of icicle lights around the building. After getting them all up I noticed the plug-in was on the other side of the building! By this time I was really talking to John. Now what? I thought if I just had a long extension cord I could weave it through to the outlet.

So I went home to find the needed extension cord. No luck finding one remotely big enough at home. More tears flowed. If John were still here this ?mix-up? never would have happened to begin with. After calming down I headed back to the salon to take down all the lights and start over.

Halfway between my home and the salon I see what looked like an extension cord in the middle of the street. I thought I was seeing things and drove around the block to have another look. Sure enough, it was an extension cord. I opened the van door and started pulling it in. I got to laughing because it was the longest extension cord I?d ever seen! It was all beat up and I thought it would be a miracle if it actually worked. It not only worked, it was also the perfect length.

I know John didn?t drop that cord from the heavens. But I did know I had an angel watching over me that day and it made for a special Christmas memory I will never forget.

With God?s help it was a Merry Christmas!

(Name withheld by request)