Another Christmas Day by Lesley Cooke, a small glass of sherry

Well, another Christmas morning and I’m all dressed up and nowhere to go! I like this red dress, I always put it on over Christmas. It’s worn well – I bought it the year before Ron died and that’s ten  years ago. ‘Granny Santa,’ the little girl next door used to call me. We would have liked children, Ron and me, but it wasn’t to be.  He always liked this dress, said it made him feel cheerful. But he was a cheerful man anyway – the laughs we used to have! I miss him – 60 years we’d have been married, come March.

 

            I don’t know why I got up so early. Years of having to put the oven on for the turkey, I suppose. And six o’clock of a Christmas morning isn’t a hardship – there is always a special feeling in the air, a tingle, as though something magical is about to happen.  It was so black and quiet outside, it made me think of a seed in the cold, dark ground, just waiting to burst forth and surprise us all.

 

            Breakfast seems such a long time ago, I feel quite peckish. Ron and I used to have a glass of sherry about now.  Let’s see if there’s some left in the bottle. I don’t suppose it’s gone off since last Christmas, things like that keep for ever.

 

            This time last year, I was just finishing my sherry when the Salvation Army minibus came and picked me up for lunch.  Wonderful food we had – turkey and all the trimmings. And the people were all so nice, so friendly, everyone had time to chat.  There was nearly a hundred of us there.  They had a huge tree in one corner and everyone got a present. After lunch we sang carols and played party games.  I did enjoy it!  I wish I was going again this year but nothing’s been said.  Mr Patel in the corner shop said I should ring them up and ask, but I couldn’t do that, it would look like begging.

 

            No, I shall have a sandwich and some soup, that’ll do me. No point in cooking a big dinner for one.  Last year, we came home from the Sally Army with a bag full of goodies – turkey sandwiches, mince pie, a piece of Christmas cake. Kept me going all Boxing Day!  And this afternoon after the King’s Speech there’s A Christmas Carol on the television, I always enjoy that.

 

            Now I’ve finished my sherry, perhaps I’ll go out for a walk.  Bound to see someone to talk to. I’ll just look out of the window and see whether that drizzle has stopped. Oh look – someone’s coming up the path!  Well I never – and there’s the Salvation Army minibus, so they’ve come to collect me for lunch after all!

 

About the author

Lesley Cooke lives in Dorset, close to the edge of the New Forest. She wrote creatively as a youngster but it is only since retiring that she has devoted more time to the craft. She has been published on a handful of occasions to date. 

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