“Put your finger on here,” Mum said. She was tying a bow on a beautifully wrapped parcel. As it was a regular oblong shape, she had found it easy to wrap the paper round it. Holly and ivy were printed all over the sheets of paper, but the paper itself was very thin and easily torn.
“Who is it
for?” I asked.
“It’s for
Grandma, up in Durham,” she said. “We
need to wrap this in brown paper and get it off to the Post Office this
afternoon.” She finished tying the
bow. I recognised the ribbon as being the
same as she used to tie in my plaits, but there was plenty left on the roll.
“What did you
get Grandad?” I asked.
“Grandad is no
longer with us,” Mum said. “Don’t you
remember? He died earlier this year.”
“Oh,” I
said. “Grandma will not be very happy
this Christmas.”
Mum said that
my aunties would make sure that she would not be alone over Christmas and said
that it would be a good idea if I would make her one of my special Christmas
cards.
Pleased to have
a job to do, I gathered my pencils and paints together and set to. I remember drawing a very unhappy angel with
copious tears dripping onto an empty dinner plate, at a table set ready for
Christmas dinner with serviettes and a cracker.
I do hope that Mum never sent it!
J. M. Harker
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