The world is full of things that bless the spirit and warm the heart. Don't let anyone steal those things from you and yours.
A Very UnMerry Christmas
She would do what he demanded, she always did and he demanded that they spend every Christmas with his family. it was the last place on Earth she ever wanted to be, especially at Christmas. Oh, the food was delicious but the ambiance was hellish.
The first year she was excited to be a new wife with a husband just returned from war. Yet, she had learned to fear his outbursts of rage and she knew something was seriously wrong with her husband and with her new marriage. The love she thought she had for him was being murdered day by day.
That first Christmas, after a very long trip and brief visit with her parents, they went to her in-laws house for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. He hated her parents and tried to isolate her from them so she was thankful to at least have a short visit with them.
At the in-laws house Christmas lights twinkled and wonderful aromas wafted from the kitchen. Her mother-in-law prided herself on having nice things and cooking great meals. She also prided herself on being the center of attention and exercising control over her four sons and two of their wives. The greetings were cordial enough but there was always a tension in the air every time the family was together, as if something really bad and unnecessary was about to happen. This time the tension was palatable. She tried to be quiet and keep a low profile so as not to provoke anyone. Two of the brothers were still children. She found joy in interacting with them. They were sweet boys, caught in a war zone not of their making.
Her father-in-law, her husband and his adult brother had gone somewhere for the day. Mother-in-law was busy with the feast in the kitchen. Her sister-in-law and she made a few trips to move belongings into the new apartment her sister-in-law would be sharing with her husband's brother. It was a nice diversion.
When they came home the men were home too. Mom had called them whining and complaining that she'd been left alone all day to do the cooking. That's when the explosion began. Screaming, cursing, accusations and threats. The younger boys hid in their rooms crying. She was terrified that there would be physical violence. Suddenly she found herself trying to get up from the floor. She had been hit with a fist. Her father-in-law picked her up and roughly pushed her down the hall to a bedroom where he locked her in.
For a while she was quiet, terrified and afraid to speak but then the rage built up inside her. How dare they do this to her? She yelled though the door,
“If you don't let me out the police will take care of you and you'll be in jail. I'll break a window and find a phone.”
They unlocked the door and she demanded that her husband take her back to her parents, a long drive but one she would gladly make. He complied. She cried the whole way. He took her home to her parents and then he left her there and went back to the hell hole of his parents' home. It was then that she should have left him forever but when he came back for her the day after Christmas she honored her marriage vows and took the very long trip back to the military base with him. It was a trip she should never have taken.
Years and Christmases came and went. Always the fear and tension were with her and always they were justified. There were confrontations, harsh words, even fights among the men. The police were called and once the poor dog's throat got cut. The dog lived but the the one who cut him shouldn't have. These were her holiday memories of the most wonderful time of the year.
Her children became old enough to realize they were not having “Merry” Christmases. When the fights broke out often they would sit in a corner and cry or walk away down the street. A regret she would live with into her old age, was the exposure of her children to such dysfunction. Harsh words were spoken to her children, they were called obscene names. Why did she tolerate it? Maybe she was weak, or afraid or maybe she was a born peacemaker. She eventually learned that peace at any price was no peace and that with certain people there could never be decency, respect or peace. Finally she did what she should have done the first Christmas, she refused to go there again. No one understood it, she was a traitor, a villain, a bitch that thought herself better than them. Finally she had realized she was better than them. She was a gentle spirit with a kind heart who was learning to love herself and defend herself and her peace.
This Christmas will be quiet, no fights, no cursing, no relatives, other than her children. Her parents have been gone for years. She still holds close to her heart beautiful memories of their house at Christmas. She has separated herself from others and endeavors to forget the horrible memories of Christmas at their house and to make her own personal circle a place of peace. No one should ever have to endure an unmerry Christmas. The world is full of things that bless the spirit and warm the heart. Don't let anyone steal those things from you and yours.
Merry Christmas to all and a New Year filled with blessings of love, joy and God's peace.
Holidays, especially Christmas tends to bring up old wounds that surface now and again. It happens in every family but your story reminds me so much of a bunch of rednecks, I swear. I smiled and hurt for the heroin. Well done as always, it took me there.
A depressing story for what is for most families the happiest time of the year. A time of great celebration, sharing and the air filled with love, peace and joy. Life isn't always as we hope for or imagine it will be. Tragedy and misery follow many of us the entire year(s) and the Christmas holiday is no exception. We must struggle to find the peace in our lives against what are sometimes formidable circumstances. May the love and peace of Christmas be with you Belle.
"He hated her parents and tried to isolate her from them." Starts off the marriage with a negative connotation. Why would any woman marry a man who hated her parents, and that she bought into that idea in the first place. Opposites attract, but this marriage seems destined to fail. And then it doesn't, at least as far as I could read.
I would've preferred if you had given names to he and she. I also suspect some very personal experience with the kinds of behavior expressed. Hopefully, it's just fiction describing the worst case of dysfunction and family rivalry/jealousy (that often happens) during holiday periods.
'Catholic Voices in a World on Fire' Anthology, includes 'The Poorest of the Poor'; by Judy Joy Jones which is a chapter from her upcoming book about her volunteer work at Mother Teresas houses around the world including her house in Washington DC w
