Staff writer
Residents of St. Luke Living Center were recently asked to think back in time and recall memorable moments from past Christmas holidays.
Midnight Mass made Christmas special for 103-year-old Amelia Vinduska, formerly of Pilsen. “That made Christmas,” she said.
Relatives of Gertrude Ray of Piedmont will miss her cooking this Christmas, and she will miss doing it. She has been at the living center for about a year.
Ray learned to cook at a young age when she was given the task of preparing food for her elderly grandmother.
For years, Ray has cooked for large group get-togethers on both sides of her family. Everyone sat around a huge table and visited for hours, she said. Before they left, some guests left money on the refrigerator.
After Ray moved to Marion, one of her relatives said, “If I can’t go to Gertrude’s, it won’t seem like a holiday.”
Christmas 2004 holds a special place in Mildred Hajek’s heart. That was the year the Lost Springs woman suffered a stroke. She was able to go back home on Christmas Eve and was greeted warmly by her family.
John Hett of Marion has been at the living center for two months. He especially remembers 1958, the year his second child, son Eldon, was born right before Christmas.
The 79-year-old Hett said he traditionally got a volunteer cedar tree from somewhere in a roadside ditch to decorate for Christmas. The tree was draped in flock or strips of wool to dress it up a bit.
Martin Hajek of Tampa has wonderful memories of the 1982 Christmas when he and his wife, Catherine, went to Hawaii to spend the holiday with their daughter, Susan, and her family, including a baby granddaughter.
He said it was summertime there. Christmas trees were thin and straggly after having been shipped and stored for weeks, but everything was beautifully decorated.
On New Year’s Eve, firecrackers went off all night long in the native tradition of “keeping the demons away.”
“The trip was a beautiful experience,” he said.
Lou Fredrickson of Marion will never forget the doll buggy and doll she received for Christmas when she was seven or eight years old.
“That was something because we were poor, and I guess I didn’t expect anything,” she said.
Her mother and father rotated with uncles and aunts in hosting the Christmas family get-together.
“It was a fun thing,” she said.
As a young boy, a room with a locked door kept Art Mueller, 93, of Tampa and his siblings in suspense as Christmas approached. The room held Christmas presents for them.
“We went to the Christmas program at church and, somehow, when we came home the door was unlocked,” he said. Each child got one present.
When he grew up and married, he and his wife hosted get-togethers on Christmas Day with his two brothers and their families. The day included a church service.
Ruth Viets, 87, of Marion was a child during the Great Depression of the 1930s. At Christmas time, her parents took Viets and her siblings on a trip downtown. They looked at things in the stores, pointing out the items they liked. They even tried on shoes but didn’t purchase anything.
“Sure enough, those things would show up Christmas mornings,” she said.
Viets also enjoyed singing Christmas carols and taking part in Christmas plays.
LaVera Bernhardt, 95, of Marion remembers the church programs on Christmas Eve at the Baptist Church in Durham.
One Christmas Eve was especially memorable. The whole congregation was excited. They had pooled money to buy their pastor a car, which they presented to him that evening.
“He was so surprised!” she said. “He had no idea what we were doing.”
It goes to show, “it is more blessed to give than to receive.”