A Christmas Eve Remembered
The following message is a Christmas memory shared by our dear friend Andy…
2004 was not a good year.
We had all come to terms with the fact that Aafia and her children were not coming back. In our own ways we mourned for them. We had begun to move on.
Christmas Eve. It was snowing in Houston. Not heavily, hardly more than flurries, but it had been snowing like that since lunch time. By dinner time it was actually sticking to the ground.
In Houston we don't see snow very often, so when it does snow we remember it. There is no previous record of it ever snowing here on Christmas Eve.
After some last minute shopping, I headed to the house of Aafia's brother to deliver some Christmas gifts for his children. After dinner we were all sitting in the living room with the lights dimmed and a fire in the fireplace, just talking and watching the snow fall. I had my guitar with me. One of the kids asked me if I knew any Christmas songs.
For the next hour and a half I played and they sang. Muhammad's wife and children knew more of the words than I did, so I just played until they stopped singing.
Having a Christmas to remember is wonderful.
Merry Christmas.
Andrew Purcell.