Millie's Smile

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Motivational story about catatonic patient & Santa.
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For several years now I have tried to hold back the ever encroaching commercialism of Christmas by dressing up in an old tattered Santa suit with a lovely and believable old wig, beard and antique bell to make my Christmas Eve rounds of several local hospitals and nursing homes. Ironically you wouldn't expect such institutions to admit a foreign Santa into their midst, but my years as a health care administrator have taught me how to receive instant acceptance. Generally, personnel in these institutions have accepted me as "one of their own" often exclaiming, "Oh, I know you! You're 'so-and-so', aren't you?"

Most often I've tried to frequent the senior institutions, knowing that it would be there that I'd find the neediest and loneliest of people. It has been my way of convincing myself just how fortunate I am as I witness those who are often alone and unvisited on Christmas Eve. Unlike the Santa of lore, who is assisted by Donner and Blitzen and the immortal Rudolph, this Santa has had to plan his time well, and has chosen to ask the head nurses, "Who needs Santa's visit the most?" They then accompany me, and let me know who can have the candy canes. I carry a few wrapped trinkets for those whose diets do not allow candy.

Time simply does not allow me to give each and everyone in a facility a small candy cane, and a sincere Merry Christmas as I would like to do. So without Rudolph's assistance, I must do my best, and visit those most in need and receptive of being cheered up. I generally pass up the rooms with joyful visitors, and instead quickly pop in with a smile and wave concentrating on those without visitors... the rooms of those very much alone on Christmas Eve. It is a wonderful experience.

The sincere smiles of long widowed old matrons and toothless veterans is all the thanks anyone could ever ask, and with a wink, a small candy cane and a joyful, "Ho, Ho, Ho," I've watched many a heart spring back into a wilted chest to joyfully exclaim, "Santa didn't forget me." I cannot begin to tell you the number of tears Santa has had to choke back as I've heard the sincere words, "Thanks Santa," as I exit a rooms. It was on just such a Christmas Eve that I met Millie.

The head nurse had suggested that I drop in on Millie, and then suddenly changed her mind, and advise me not to bother. Since I am always up to a challenge, Santa insisted that we visit her.

Upon entering her room, Millie sat quietly in a tattered old yellow print dress while staring off into space. Somehow Santa knew that this was going to be a tough one, and called up his best, "Ho, Ho, Ho, and a Merry Christmas," only to find the focus of his attention totally unmoved. Another even heartier try was just as unsuccessful. Maybe the head nurse was right. Millie was too far gone, and there were so many more reachable ones to visit that night. Past experience had taught me that I could not get to all of them, no matter how hard I tried.

Somehow the spirit of a thousand Santas compelled me to persevere, and kneel at Millie's feet. Taking her frail hand in mine, and looking her straight into the eye, I said, "Millie, Santa has come all the way from the North Pole just to wish you a Merry Christmas, and give you this little candy cane. And by God, he's not going back to the North Pole until you smile for him."

Millie immediately squeezed both of my hands with a strength that seemed to come from beyond her tiny frail body, and she broke into a toothless smile as warm and sincere as any that I've ever seen. I squeezed her hands, and blowing a kiss to her started off to finish my rounds. Within just a minute or two, I began to hear the nurses whisper up and down the halls as I passed by, "Millie Smiled!" Millie smiled!" The message was passed on like buckets of water in a bucket brigade. Several times the news fell upon ears of disbelief and questioning.

I inquired of the head nurse, who had accompanied me, and she said, "We're amazed, I've been here over 10 years, and in all that time Millie has only stared off into space. To the best of my knowledge, she has never shown any emotion, none the less smiled."

If a hundred years go by, and I should never accomplish another thing, I do believe Millie's smile will have taught me that there is an amazing wonderment in this world of ours, and that perhaps lurking in each of us is the real Santa Claus capable of brightening the most forlorn and forgotten of hearts.

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  • COMMENTS
1 Comments
mzzqtmzzqtover 15 years ago
how sweet

I loved it...isn't it wonderful to make an older American's day?

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