The little blonde angel grew and from the time she was able to speak she never wanted to be anything but a nurse. There are many family stories of her medical and patching up skills even as a child. The years flew by but each year her Christmas angel topped the family tree.. A sister was born, then a brother and finally me the baby brother…They tell me first word was “Hela” before Momma or Dada.. I followed her everywhere… She took me with her much of the time. She eventually joined the Army so she could get her nurses training.. She never had to go anywhere bad like her father did, even so she dealt with plenty of the aftermath of damage war does to people.
As I grew I don’t remember a Christmas that my sister’s angel wasn’t on our tree though she’d had a few rough times in her life too... Dropped a few times and glued.. Burned some from too hot of a light bulb being used. Some melted plastic and the colors are not the same anymore.
For years the blonde angel with the bright blue eyes worked as a nurse at the Veterans Hospital.. As she began to get a few years on her, she began to have medical problems.. A bad back which many nurses get.. Diabetes, leg and knee trouble. Always cheerful and always there to love and help out anyone even if they didn’t ask. Finally, on January 10, 1999 very ill and in much pain, she left us to go home to Jesus.. Not old at all, only 57. It took me months before I finally let it out and cried... I cried till I was sick.
A year or two later when I came home for Christmas, I walked into my parents house and there atop their tree was a bright, gaudy, tinsel looking star with flashing lights and I was aghast.. “Where is she? Where is Helen’s angel?” My mother looked at me as though it was nothing and said “I threw her away.. She was just too far gone and ugly to use any more.” I was heartbroken.. “When did you throw her away?” I sadly asked.. “Why didn’t you at least save her as a keepsake?” “She was just worthless and falling to pieces” says mom.. “She’s in there in the box by the kitchen trash if you don’t believe me.. If you want to keep her, take her.” “No I don’t want to take her, I want to save her” I took her out of the box and with a bottle of glue hid in my bedroom for a while.. I managed to make her stay together! But, mom wasn’t having anything to do with me taking down her pretty star.. I wrapped her in tissue and put her in the ornament box.
Daddy passed away in 2004, then mom followed him in 2007. While back home with my brother and sister, trying to make some sense of what to do with all the things mom had in a rented storage, I saw the old wooden ornament box and I wondered if it could possibly still be there.. Surely the next year after I was gone Mother would have thrown it away. I opened the box and for some reason right on top.. Still in the very same tissue I’d used, was Helen’s angel. My sister and brother had no objection to my tearful request of that one item from the old box.
Now it’s nearing Christmas of 2011. In two days Helen would be 69.. Still not old.. I still miss her, her kindness, and gentle spirit. People may look at our tree a little funny every year but I don’t care. This is my family and we make the decisions. Sleep well my angel sister.. Your birth angel will top my tree till I pass her to one of my family that will never think she’s too old or ugly to be there every year.
By: Brother, Devon Etherton
Aha, now I see. The gentleness and kindness runs from sister to sister.
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