Thanksgiving Angels

The old lady wiped her nose on the tissue that she had scrunched up in her hand. She sat with her shoulders slumped and her head bent in a downward angle. The tears trickled from the corners of her faded blue eyes, down past her nose and over her wrinkled cheeks. She sat in the last seat, in the darkest corner of the bus station. At that moment she wished that the shadows in which she tried to hide herself, would just swallow her up and cause her to disappear for once and for all. She tried to straighten her shoulders up, but the weight of her sorrow held them down in the bent position she was starting to know all to well. She was going home, but it felt more as though she was being sent to serve out some kind of harsh sentence, instead of going to join her daughter and her daughter's family in their home.

Home had been where she had lived with her husband of fifty years. That was the only home that she wanted or needed. The small clapboard house with the bright, cheery yard brimming with the roses that she and Ben had planted, had been sold. There was nowhere for her to go, but to get on the bus and to continue on to her only daughter's house.

Ben was dead and for all intents and purposes Rose felt as though she had died with him. They had both known that Ben was dying but they hadn't talked about it much. They had continued to share their morning coffee on the little porch where the two matching rocking chairs had sat. They had still laughed over the morning comic strips and they had laid awake together at night wrapped in each other's arms, feeling as though nothing could ever separate them. They had been wrong! Death is the great divider. Ben was gone and Rose was alone at the age of 72.

She wondered why she had to leave everything that she had known and loved for so many years, only to move to another state and into an already crowded house, where there was no room for a sad old woman. The house had been sold to pay all of the outstanding debt that Ben's illness and death had accrued. They had briefly discussed it shortly before his death while he was still lucid. The house would have to be sold and she would go to live with Macy and Jim's to stay. Macy and Jim had been loving and gracious, assuring Rose that they had a room prepared for her and that the kids were excited to have their Granny's undivided attention. Rose however was certain that living with her daughter's family would only bring misery to them all. Thanksgiving would soon be upon them and Rose could find nothing at this moment to be thankful for, in the least.

She supposed she could be heading to a Nursing Home instead of Macy's. A wave of apprehension shook her to her soul and she blew her nose. She knew she was being selfish but she didn't want to give up her independence or her comfortable little house in order to cram her few remaining things into some little room. She loved her daughter and they actually got along quite well, but she wanted to keep her own life, not live on the fringes of someone else's, just because she was getting old. Somewhere on the other side of the nearly empty bus station she could hear the tinny, high-pitched cry of a newborn. She knew the sound of a hungry baby when she heard one. She straightened up and began scanning the huge room for the source of the noise.

The woman sat on the hard brown painted bench. At her feet sat a tattered suitcase stuffed with all that she owned. Though it was cold out the woman had no jacket on, instead she had a shawl thrown over her bony shoulders and over the tiny, mewling bundle that she held tightly in her arms. She glanced at the almost empty bottle sitting on the bench next to her and wondered where she would find any more milk to feed her new son? She needed to keep food in his small stomach until she could find somewhere to stay.

She missed her Mother and she wished with all of her heart that she had waited to have the baby until Mike came back from Iraq. Her Mother had tried to warn her that it would be hard, but she thought she had known best. She had dismissed her Mother's words and set off on her own to follow Mike. Now Mike wasn't here, she had only been out of the hospital a few days and money was scarce. The baby was hungry and he knew nothing of their precarious circumstances. He only knew that he wanted warmth and milk to fill his tiny, empty tummy. She rocked the baby back and forth in her arms not noticing the old woman who was intently watching them. She only knew that it would take some kind of miracle for them to get all the way to Kentucky where Mike had lined up some base housing for her and their son. She refused to think about the coming holiday and all of the Thanksgivings that she had spent in the warmth and love of her family. There would be no Thanksgiving this year for her or her little son. She refused to think about having to call her Mother for help.

Rose noticed the way the woman tenderly held the young baby to her breast, as if protecting him from any danger that the world might throw at them. Rose smiled as she remembered the love and the struggles that she and Ben had faced when they had been young and Macy had been born. The memories seemed bitter sweet to the old woman, who by now had forgotten her own pain and loneliness, while watching the young woman and her child. She moved silently closer listening to the sweet, crooning sounds that the woman murmured under her breath to help silence the baby. Not wanting to startle the younger woman, Rose cleared her throat with a small noise and sat down on the bench across from the girl.

The girl glanced up and raised her doe brown eyes to Rose's own faded blue ones. As their eyes met, Rose smiled reassuringly. She still remembered how it felt to be a new mother when the task seemed so overwhelming and one's body still ached from recent birth.

Rose had experienced all of this before some forty years ago. Ben had been stationed in Viet Nam and she had been alone with Macy, far away from her family. Rose remembered how she had felt as though things would never be right again. One Christmas many years ago, on a similar night , she and Macy had been sitting on a bench in a train station. They had been hungry, tired and hopeless and then she had met the man who had changed things for them.

She had not thought about that man for many years. He had found her sitting in the train station alone and fearful of the future. He had quietly taken her and her infant daughter into a nearby restaurant and filled their hungry stomachs. He had smiled and listened to her as she shared her loneliness and heartache and he in kindness had advised her wisely to call her folks and let them know about her circumstances. Then before he had left them he had pressed a folded bill into the palm of her hand. Later as she had opened it, she had seen that he had gifted her with $100.

She still believed to this day that the man had been an angel sent to Earth especially for her and her little daughter. After he had left she had called her Mom on the phone, they had both cried and she had spent the time that Ben had been gone, living in the warmth of her family home with her parents and her tiny, new baby. She hoped that she could share her story with the tired looking young woman and that it might do some good.

The old woman began to speak in a soft voice and she listened quietly as the girl began sharing about her ordeal in return. The girl smiled and as she did so her young face lit up as though a candle glowed from within. The old woman led the younger one into a nearby restaurant. The baby, tummy full had fallen into a deep sleep and the two continued to talk for awhile. After awhile the older woman arose and headed for the door, hoping she would not be late in catching the bus that would carry her home to her daughter and grandchildren.

Before she headed towards the bank of telephones on the far wall of the bus station, the young woman looked down at the folded bill that the old woman had pressed into her hand. She opened it but she knew already what it was. She smiled as she saw the $100 bill. She knew that her Mother would be waiting for her call and that she and her small son would sleep safely in her old bed tomorrow night. She smiled once more surprised at how life could change in an instant and she whispered a prayer of Thanksgiving to God for sending her an angel.

The old woman boarded the bus, tired but smiling. She was hungry but she knew that her stomach would be full once she reached home. Home might not be where Ben was waiting in a little clapboard house surrounded by roses, but home was where you were surrounded by love and kindness and that was where she was headed. Life was not finished with her yet and she was sure she had more to accomplish before God would call her to join Ben.

She smiled again and as she glanced out the tiny window of the bus she noticed the young woman clutching the baby talking on the phone. The young woman was no longer looking sad and hopeless. Rose whispered a small prayer of Thanksgiving to God for sending yet another angel into her life. No, she reconsidered. This time He had sent two angels, one big and the other newborn. She felt at peace knowing that she had learned her lesson well. It would be a wonderful Thanksgiving after all.