Sandra's Christmas Memory Box

SANDRA’S CHRISTMAS MEMORY BOX

  By Joy Bassetti Kruger

  SANDRA’S CHRISTMAS MEMORY BOX

  By Joy Bassetti Kruger

  Copyright © 2012 by Joy Bassetti Kruger

  Cover downloaded from DreamWorks

  SANDRA’S CHRISTMAS MEMORY BOX

  By Joy Bassetti Kruger

  Sandra’s guilty little secret that involved unpacking her Christmas Memory Box of gifts on Christmas Eve, -was a tradition that nobody else knew anything about. She hoped she could keep it this way, -but then something happened that changed everything.

  The unpacking ceremony was something she gave considerable thought to during the weeks prior Christmas. She always looked forward to taking the box down from the shelf and then re-opening the gifts she’d received during the past five years. She cherished seeing the many neatly re-wrapped parcels she’d stored in the box over the years. She even found that in un-wrapping each of the gifts year after year, it was almost as exciting as when she’d first received them from family and friends.

  She loved her Christmas Eves and felt she drew strength from the happy memories her memory box of the gifts afforded her. So now having already admired the older gifts from Christmases past, she turned her attention to the new gifts, -the ones she’d received through the post recently. Each gift was unwrapped in turn and committed to memory and then carefully placed on the table alongside all her other gifts.

  The perfume bottles, expensive lotions, boxes of sweets, trinkets, ornaments, lace handkerchiefs and lavender soaps were all packaged in smart, pretty, colourful little boxes. While the many individual wrapping papers were all very Christmassy looking and this added colour and excitement to Sandra’s vast display of gifts.

  So deep in thought now, Sandra stood back and quietly admired her special gift collection. She also brought to mind each individual that had sent her the gifts and tried to visualize their faces, as well as hear their voices. As a bonus, she sometimes also imagined she could even hear them wishing her a merry Christmas.

  Then suddenly breaking into her reverie of pleasant memories and all the old voices from the past she could still hear inside her head, the front doorbell rang loudly.

  The jarring, unwelcome sound abruptly interrupted her train of thought and for a moment she felt disorientated and unsure of what to do next. It was not that she disliked receiving visitors, for these days there were few enough of those, but rather that she didn’t want anyone else to intrude on her annual gift re-opening ceremony.

  For this reason, she simply ignored the fact that there was someone at her door. Then finally when the ringing persisted, she muttered cross words to herself, before walking out of the room and carefully closing the dining room door behind her.

  Then going to see who was at the door and find out what they wanted, she thought to herself, -Oh, I hope it’s not those horrible teenagers from next door wanting to fetch their ball again, or those noisy kids from over the road, who think that I’m the local sweetie bank.

  Standing on tiptoe, she cautiously looked through the peep-hole. And to her amazement, her younger daughter Leanne was standing on her doorstep.

  So feeling obliged to open the door to her, she slid the latch and opened the door a fraction, and said, “Good heavens Leanne, what are you doing here?”

  Nearly bowling her mother over with her enthusiasm, Leanne yelled out, “Surprise! Happy Christmas mother,” as she kissed Sandra on each cheek and gave her a big hug and then stood back waiting for her mother to invite her inside.

  Now, although Sandra was pleased to see her daughter, -at the same time she was also reluctant to include her in the gift opening tradition she’d begun after they’d all gone away to Australia and left her to fend for herself. This meant that that her invitation to Leanne was not immediately forthcoming or terribly spontaneous.

  But undeterred by her mother’s seeming reluctance to let her in, Leanne edged her way past Sandra, and said, “Well, aren’t you going to welcome me in and make me a cup of tea, mother?” Then heading directly for the dining room door, which would take her through to the kitchen, Leanne added, “I’ve had a long, rough plane ride all the way from Oz, so a nice hot cup of tea would be most welcome, mother.”

  Getting into a bit of a panic now and feeling unsure how to handle the situation, Sandra quickly barred her daughter’s way by quickly skirting around her and then standing still immediately in front of her, before saying sternly, “No Leanne, stop. Please don’t open that door.”

  Looking at Sandra in utter amazement, Leanne quickly retorted, “Oh come on mother, why ever not?” Before she pushed past her mother and walked directly into the dining room.

  She spotted the gifts on display on the dining room table immediately. So turning to Sandra she said in surprise, “Gosh, who on earth are all the presents for, mother?”

  Realizing quickly that the game was up, Sandra said smugly, “They’re all mine.” Then in a protective manner, she immediately went to stand between her daughter and the gifts.

  Frowning now, Leanne realized soon enough that the gifts were all presents her mother had received from family and friends over the years. She even recognized some of the gifts as well as the packaging, as gifts she’d sent to her mother some time previously. So in a rather unfriendly tone, she said, “Please explain to me exactly what’s going on here, mother? -This is not normal! In fact, your behaviour is rather strange and also pretty disturbing. So please explain to me why you didn’t you use any of these gifts? -Oh my goodness, the others will go ballistic when I tell them what’s been going on here in our absence, mother”

  Moving back slightly and standing with her hands on her hips, Sandra looked up at her daughter and said defiantly, “There you go again, Leanne. Always butting in where you’re not wanted. Now you’ve managed to ruin everything in my life, for just like Pandora, you’ve allowed all my wonderful memories to escape from their box. Now I’ll never be able to recapture them. They are all gone and lost forever,” she wailed. Then after a moment, when she’d noticed the look of surprise on Leanne’s face, she sheepishly added, “Please Leanne, I beg you not to tell the others about this. Please promise me that you won’t say a word to them.”

  Realizing her mother needed to be reassured that her secret was safe with her, Leanne said, “Oh mother, I’m sorry. This is all my fault. It was a huge mistake to just pitch up here like this. So I’m sorry, I intruded on something that is obviously very special to you. Look, I realize now that I should’ve let you know I was coming. It’s okay though -as I promise I won’t tell the others about your secret hoard of gifts. But first you have to promise to co-operate with me and begin to use your gifts from now onwards. Okay?”

  Sandra nodded, but as Leanne quickly walked through to the kitchen to put the cups out and switch the kettle on, Sandra made a rude gesture behind her back and muttered to herself about how bossy her daughter had become over the years.

  Minutes later when Leanne brought the tea tray through and poured the tea, she noted with interest that Sandra had already packed all the gifts away. She didn’t remark on this, as she realized it was a touchy subject and that she’d have to wait a while before she said anything further on the subject.

  Then while Leanne was pouring the tea, Sandra came up to her and hugged her and contritely blurted out, “Sorry I yelled at you earlier, Leanne. It was uncalled for. But you see my annual gift re-opening has become a bit of a tradition for me. I treat it as my memory box, something that brings back many happy memories to me. I enjoy opening all my gifts again and recalling who gave them to me. It somehow makes distant family and friends seem closer and that’s
a comforting thought. Now I’m certain there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, Leanne.”

  Intuitively, Leanne realized that her mother was very lonely and that in her own quiet way she was actually very pleased to see her. So cautiously now, she said, “No, there’s nothing wrong with having a few little traditions, mother. It’s also nice to have good memories, but the family would like you to have something so much better than this. In fact, we’d all like you to begin to make some new memories, by joining in with all our celebrations in Oz. This is why we’ve decided that it was high time that you came to live with us. We want to be able to look after you and make sure that you’re all right. Mumsy-mum, we all worry about you terribly, you know!”

  At this point they both had a really good cry, but ended up hugging each other closely and telling each other how much they were missed. Sandra was the first to speak, when through her tears, she said, “I’m glad you came to visit dear and I think I might like to stay with you in Australia now. But are you certain I won’t just be in the way there?”

  “Of course you won’t be in the way, -surely you know that, mother! –Now Mumsy-mum, are you going to tell me the real reason why you never used any of your gifts,” Leanne