One of these stories in my life as a nurse could be said of all three of the above.

We had a young mother of two children and married to a wonderful man. The mother was fighting a losing battle with cancer. She so wanted to live until Christmas but she knew that it was not to be. She cried as she told her wish to those of us who cared for her daily needs.

So one day we dressed her in her prettiest gown, put make up on her, and put on her prettiest turban (lost her hair to chemo). She wanted to know the reason for all of the extra attention. We told her it was almost visiting hour and today we wanted her to surprise her family and that the make over might boost her spirits. She just smiled.

When the family came, we put the mother in a wheel chair and with her family in tow we took them down the hall to the patient lounge. We told them that we wanted them to have some quite time for themselves. To their surprise, they found a large Christmas tree with all the decorations and trimmings. There were presents galore of all of them. We then brought in pot luck we all took part in and they had Christmas dinner too with all the trimmings. Carols and singing coming form a record player, playing ever so softly. We left them to be a family for one last Christmas. After an hour or so, we went to check on them, to make sure Mother was not getting tired. Looking through the windows of the lounge, you saw a scene of happiness. There was not a dry eye among us.

Soon we had to take Mother back to her room to rest. The father and children could not thank us enough for the Christmas surprise. Mother went to sleep with a smile and a tear in the corner of her eye. Such a little part we played in the lives of these people. We were so glad to know that we gave someone a Christmas to remember. The mother died in less than a week after that Christmas in August.

Christmas can come any day of the year.