Promise Kept

Do any of you keep special old Christmas cards you receive?

While going through some Christmas decorations, my cache of old Christmas cards buried in these decorations stopped me in my tracks as I opened the bag to read a few. One of the cards was the last one that my only aunt made me at her nursing home. She was 95 years old that year. One card from my sister telling me that her favorite Christmas present of all time was a navy blue raincoat with her monogram that I gave her.

Another card in the collection is from a friend who died on December 23rd and her message she wrote still brings tears to my eyes, “Thank you for including me in your trips…”. We had just returned from a cruise two weeks before.

Then, there was an odd one. The scene on the front of the card was a snow covered mountain with little domed houses hanging off the side of the mountain. On each side of the scene was Japanese writing.

This card arrived the first of February, 1987, but still held the message inside, “Season’s Greetings.” It was from a man that I met in the Belgrade, Yugoslavia airport in January of that year who asked me to loan him 4,300 dinars which was about five dollars in United States currency.

The man was dressed in a black wool fedora and a long black cape. I thought he looked like he belonged in a Dracula movie. He explained that he was out of dinars, Yugoslavian currency at the time,and didn’t want to buy anymore.

We all had to pay 4,300 dinars as an exit fee at the airport. He asked for my name and address so he could return the money. I gave it to him. Even if I never saw the five dollars he promised to mail me when he returned home to Washington, D.C. I knew this was a story worth lots more than five dollars. You just don’t forget a man in a cape asking for a loan in Yugoslavia and what is more remarkable he kept his Promise. The rest of that trip was just as crazy.

Some people just send me a card every year, one friend sends me a calendar, some friends send a letter with the card detailing the happenings of the family during the past year, some send picture cards with the whole family dressed in a certain color or style and then there are the really special ones that bring back the memories of that person or place. Hope you get a special one this year.