Francine and Tommy remained in the Pacific Northwest after those special days spent with Max and Kathy. She was gratified in the knowledge that she kept her family promise to them. Their life changing gift gave her the opportunity to attend years of medical school and after internship and residency she achieved her MD board certification and Masters of Business Administration degree. She began her career at the Children’s Hospital in 1998. Tommy’s life really took off. He married his high school sweetheart Marie Anderson and they were Blessed with twins Angela and Matt. After achieving his Masters in Teaching at the University of Washington, he got a job teaching high school English in the Seattle School District in 2005 while the twins were home schooled by Marie.
Dr. Francine practiced at the Children’s Hospital for twenty-seven years, later serving as Director of Pediatric Care. Since her retirement, she held a position on the board of directors of The McKay House. In 2010 she rejuvenated the old creaky house she loved into a home filled with magic and hope. Where families and caregivers could stay while their child was receiving treatment at the Children’s Hospital. It had 25 self-contained suites with communal kitchens, pantries, laundry, libraries and administrative offices. The grounds were landscaped with nature trails, vegetable gardens and play areas and the House provided 24/7 shuttle service to Children’s Hospital.
On that Christmas Eve day, the large common dining space was decorated to the hilt for Christmas and transformed into a joyful Holiday Wonderland. After reminiscing on the fortunes that brought her to that day, Dr. Francine Hope slowly opened her eyes revealing the room of excited kids including her two grandchildren. They all ran around enjoying the festivities and getting ready for Christmas Story Time, which was dear to her heart.
A volunteer dressed like Mrs. Claus gathered the children on the rug to hear a favorite story. It was about a mom and her child, stranded on a snowy night when an elderly couple invited them in from the cold. At first, wary of each other, but when they opened their hearts, soon developed into a relationship with all receiving the exact gift each one needed. The mom and son got the warmth, safety and friendship and in return the elderly couple received the family feeling they thought they had lost forever. The ultimate gift each of them needed was love, which they all received on that snowy homemade Christmas a long time ago. The subtitle read; “Christmas won’t come from something you buy, it comes from your heart, if you give it a try.”
Dr. Hope sat in the back with the other parents and grandparents and watched the children as they listened inventively to every word. After the Storytime was concluded one of the grandmothers switched on the recorded Holiday music, filling the room with the Christmas Waltz, frosted window panes, candles gleaming inside, painted candy canes on the tree. Another mom dressed up like one of Santa’s elves announced,
“Okay kids, who wants some Christmas cookies and milk?” The kids cheered and came rushing to the dessert table that displayed every type of Holiday cookie ever made. One of the mom’s leaned over to Francine and said,
“ I love that story, my mom used to read it to me over and over again when I was a kid.”
“Yeah,” said Francine as she peered through the window to see the snow falling. With a smile and a tear in her eye, she replied,
“I love that story too.” Looking around the festive room she saw her grandchildren, Angela and Matt, playing and laughing with the others. But what touched her heart was the small Christmas tree sitting on the dessert table. As an homage to the story, this little tree was simply decorated with red and green ribbons, pinecones, pink paper strips and small silver packets of take-out soy sauce. Dr. Francine Hope closed her eyes and held that book close to her chest, thinking back on that special Christmas and the serendipitous family reunion that changed her life forever.
That particular Christmas book read to the children was written by her mother’s Uncle Max and illustrated by her mother’s Aunt Kathy McKay and published in 1979, the year they passed away. Mysteriously, that was ten years before she and Tommy were invited into their old Queen Anne style home on that cold winter night. After many years she stopped trying to make sense of the events of those few days and finally accepted that the time together as a sort of Divine plan. The happy result was not only her salvation but the certainty that every child and family she helped, paid it forward and in turn everyone they helped did the same and so on. Those continuous acts of kindness were a perpetual tribute to Max and Kathy, like endless ripples from a small stone dropped into a pond. An excited Angela ran out from the crowd of kids called out to her,
“Grandma, come look and see what I made.”
“I’ll be right there baby,” she said, placing her personal worn and frayed copy of the book down on the table among the snickerdoodles, gingerbread men and under the small Christmas tree. An adjoining conference room was decorated like a Santa’s Village complete with sparkling colorful lights in green boughs of holly and filled with stacks of toys, games and clothing donated by the community. Parents would come in and choose gifts for their children, so they would have something to open on Christmas morning.
Every year, the most popular children’s Christmas book chosen for a gift was the one Mrs. Claus read aloud that day, the one Francine placed on the cookie table. It proudly featured the title written in big red letters resting on a soft bed of white snow. It was the forty-five-year-old story book known and beloved by children around the world as CHRISTMAS HOPE.
MERRY CHRISTMAS – Keith