I’m gonna tell you a story from my highway patrol days…
It’s simply called “It’s My Christmas Eve”
The hour is late. Should go to bed.
Near midnight I believe.
But memories keep me wide awake
this snowy Christmas eve.
Yes, memories of my kids moved on,
each has their separate life,
and how the holidays have changed
since angels took my wife
The toys, the food, the Christmas cheer,
my wife would bear the load
cause I would work most holidays
State Trooper on the road.
Just sitting in my easy chair,
so many years retired
I reminisce on times gone by
on all that has transpired
Of all the many happenings
that seem to come to light
a multitude of them occurred
right on this very night.
A drunken woman in a wreck
who died on Christmas eve
leaves memories of a tragic case
most people can’t believe.
I had to drive to where she lived
to tell her next of kin.
Found the run down mobile home
she had been living in
The person answering the door,
I still recall today,
A little girl ’bout 4 years old.
She said, “I’m Sue McCay.”
I asked her if her dad was home
and felt the longest pause
She said, “My daddy ran away,
you must be Santa Claus.
My mommy said you’d come tonight
if I just stayed in bed
and bring a pretty doll for me
is what my mommy said.
I broke the law that Christmas eve
did not call child’s care.
They’d merely put her in a room
and that I couldn’t bear.
I picked her up and took her home
my wife tucked her in bed
and wrapped a pretty doll for her
just like her mommy said.
Adopted by a loving home
and soon they moved away.
I won’t forget that Christmas eve
and little Sue McCay.
Another bitter Christmas Eve
a blizzard to behold
had left a family in a ditch
just trapped there in the cold.
By Grace of God I spotted them
all cold and gaunt with fright
drove them to a motel room to
safely spend the night.
One Christmas Eve, a homeless man,
all shivering a wet
was trying hard to get a ride
I’m sure he’d never get.
I picked him up and drove him
to a diner on the hill
to warm his bones and left him
with a five dollar bill.
Strange how when you’re all alone
with memories you recall
you think of everything you’ve done
and was it worth it all?
I think about my God, my job,
my children and my wife.
Would I do it all the same
could I relive my life?
Then comes a knock upon my door.
This late! Who could it be?
A neighbor or a Santa Claus
come to visit me?
The figure standing in the cold
gives me a sudden fright.
A trooper with that solemn look
Dear God, who’s died tonight?
I’m flashin’ back through bygone years
and how I’d often stood
on someone’s porch to bring them news
and it was never good.
Is this how life gets back at me
for misery I’ve induced?
Where pain I’ve caused some other folks
has now come home to roost?
But looking in the Trooper’s eyes
my mind is in a whirl
I see a pleasant countenance
the Trooper is a girl.
She smiled and reached to shake my hands
and silence wasn’t broke
until a tear rolled down her cheek
and then she softly spoke.
“I’m sure you don’t remember me
but thought I stop and say
God bless you on this Christmas Eve.
I’m Trooper Sue McCay.”
Written and orated by Bob Welsh http://www.bobwelsh.com
Reader Submitted by,
Joe Weingarten from Fishers, IN