Stella's Place

I found this story on rd.com (Readers’ Digest). It is filed under true stories. I don’t know if it is, but I love the story, and I think you will too.

I have a very small creche in my small house (only a few inches high), with inexpensive figures made of some kind of flexible resin that I got at Michael’s Craft Store. I made my creche out of cardboard, glue and paint. I use it every year, and the one in this story reminded me immediately of my own very humble creation of the manger scene. It has Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus, a donkey, a cow, a couple of shepherds and sheep and the three wise men with their camels. There is also the angel announcing the Savior’s birth. I attach it to the roof with a twist tie through a hollow in the corrugated cardboard roof.

Now, the story, by Kathy Melia Levine:

When my mother died at the age of eighty-four, my four sisters and I were heartbroken. How could we ever get over the loss of this warm and loving woman, a talented artist who enjoyed life in spite of its challenges and always doted on her husband, daughters and grandchildren?

For weeks after, my sisters and I would meet for dinner, laughing and crying over old memories. When it came time to sell the home my mother loved, we spent many days in disbelief, clearing out her belongings. I remembered reading an Ann Landers column years earlier that discussed how many siblings fight bitterly over the possessions left by their deceased parents. I thought, “How lucky we are that will never happen to us.” Somehow, we easily and peacefully divided Mom’s belongings—furniture, jewelry, and household items—among ourselves and a few charities. Although I expected there might be a tug of war over her paintings, that never happened. Pretty good considering there were five daughters and four grandchildren. No conflicts, squabbles or disputes at all. Until we discovered the old nativity set in a box in Mom’s closet.

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