My tiny army and I invade the hospital in the late afternoon. We head down the wrong hallway, but Janna quickly discerns our error and soon has us on the right path.
I glance at her as we approach room 311. “Do they know we’re coming?”
She shakes her head.
Lyric chimes in, “But Harmony is here. She’s expecting us. I asked her to text if this was a bad time. She said it’s perfect. They don’t eat dinner for another hour. So they should be happy to enjoy all your goodies.” He smiles at me.
He’s holding the little Christmas tree that Emmie found at Wal-Mart. She and Kookie both instantly agreed that Jimmy’s mom needed a little Norfolk pine for her hospital room. They spent part of Sunday afternoon making little ornaments for it from some supplies we purchased on that same shopping trip.
My younger boys are each carrying a gift I bought for Jimmy’s mother. Kookie is toting the skateboard, Emmie has the video game, Janna’s hands are balancing twin tins full of goodies, and the bag full of two delicious Christmas Eve meals is dangling from my fingertips. Noel is carrying two cups of hot cocoa. This last touch was the idea of my two tiny tots. Alastair and Abs insisted that Jimmy and his mom needed hot chocolate.
“With lots of whipped cream!” Abs declared.
Hopefully, the whipped cream hasn’t all melted in the last few minutes. Although, there was a massive mountain of it on top of the cup of cocoa. I filled the sixteen-ounce cups with a cup of liquid. Then the boys filled the remaining half of the cups with whipped cream. Now, that’s my kind of hot chocolate! Can I have a little hot cocoa with my whipped cream, please?
I rap lightly on the hospital room door a moment later. I can hear Harmony’s voice.
“Jimmy, Mrs. Parker, I have a Christmas surprise for you both,” she announces.
Then the door suddenly opens before us. Harmony greets us with a wave of her hand. So I follow her into the sterile room. Everything is white. White walls. White blankets on the bed. White pillows propping up Mrs. Parker.
I’m chuckling internally. Of course, Jimmy’s last name is Parker. Park Jimin. Jimmy Parker. I mean, if the boy is going to have an identity in an alternate universe, this one fits. Jimmy Parker is Park Jimin’s alter ego.
I glance at him for a moment and smile. Then my eyes travel to the pale face of his mother. “Hello,” I greet her. “Sorry to barge in on you without warning. But my children and I heard that you were spending Christmas in the hospital. We all agreed that it’s pretty crummy timing, so we wanted to surprise you with a few things to cheer you both up.”
My troop follows me into the room and lines up next to me. Mrs. Parker’s eyes grow wide as she sees all the wrapped presents, the tree, the tins, the cups of cocoa, and my bag of food. Jimmy looks delighted.
“Emmie and I thought you should have a Christmas tree,” Kookie explains as he gestures towards the living pine in Lyric’s arms.
Lyric glances around the room. “Where would you like me to put it?”
“Um.” Mrs. Parker notices the table at her elbow. “Just set it here. On my nightstand. Thank you all,” she gushes suddenly. “This is so nice of you!”
“I’m Ann,” I introduce myself. “This is Kookie, Emmie, Lyric, and Janna. They’re Jimmy’s classmates. And these guys here are my younger sons, Everett, Alastair, and Abner. This is Noel, Emmie’s little brother.”
“Mrs. Parker, this is my brother, Lyric,” Harmony explains belatedly as she touches her brother on the arm.
“It’s wonderful to meet you all. I can’t believe you took time out of your Christmas Eve celebrations to visit us in the hospital.”
“Of course, we did!” I exclaim. “Your Christmas is every bit as important as ours. I suspect it’s actually more important. It sounds like you’ve had a really rough go of it lately.”
I pause to grimace sympathetically at her before explaining, “We wanted to spread a little Christmas cheer here. So we’ve brought you dinner. A real dinner. The same one we’ll be eating in a couple hours.” I approach her nightstand and pull several containers out of my sack.
“I hope you like Swedish meatballs. They’re the savory ones, not the sweet, barbecued ones. These are the real deal. My mother-in-law taught me how to make them. And there’s mashed potatoes and gravy to go with them in these containers.”
I pull out the foil-wrapped flat bread. “This is lefse. It’s sort of like a Norwegian tortilla. I’ve brought along a little container of sweet cinnamon butter too. You can spread it on the lefse, if you want. Although,” I add as I lean towards her conspiratorially, “I think the best way to eat it is to roll some meatballs up in it. Without the cinnamon and sugar, of course.”
“Mom! You know that’s totally illegal!” Janna rebukes me, shaking her head. “Lefse is meant to be eaten with cinnamon, sugar, and butter. It’s how we Norwegians eat it.”
“Well, lucky for me, I’m not Norwegian. So it’s not illegal for me. I can eat all the meatballs I want with my lefse.”
Mrs. Parker begins to laugh. I glance down at her and smile. “This container has cucumber salad. It’s sort of like fresh pickles. This tiny container contains lingonberries. My very favorite part of this meal. They’re a Norwegian berry similar to cranberries. So it tastes kind of like cranberry sauce.”
I glance at my daughter. “Janna, can you tell her what you brought them?”
My daughter looks at Mrs. Parker and responds, “We made a bunch of Christmas cookies for you.”
“And some candy too!” pipes up Alastair.
“Yeah,” adds Abs. “Buckeyes and peppermint fudge.”
“Gingerbread cookies. Sugar cookies. Christmas crack. Pecan balls,” I enumerate our lavish list of sweet treats.
“My goodness!” Mrs. Parker exclaims. “I better get out of this bed soon, or I’m going to gain ten pounds before New Year’s.”
I chuckle. “Yeah, that is a very real danger.”
“Mom, you need to gain some weight,” Jimmy points out.
She glances up at me. “I’ve lost twenty pounds since I came into the hospital. Getting an intestinal infection is not the best way to diet, even if it is effective.”
“What’s Christmas crack?” Jimmy asks.
“Only the most delicious graham cracker you ever ate,” Lyric explains. “It’s covered in toffee and chocolate.”
Jimmy’s face lights up. “Can I eat one now?”
“Sure!” I reply as Janna hands him the containers.
“Thanks!” Jimmy opens the lid of the top tin and pulls out a cracker. He glances at his mom. “Want one?”
She shakes her head. “No, honey. Thank you. Maybe I’ll try one after dinner. I don’t want to spoil my dinner.” She meets my eye again. “Everything you made sounds wonderful. I can’t wait to eat it!”
“You don’t have to wait. Feel free to eat your dinner now. I’m not sure how much longer it will be warm. Jimmy, would you like me to bring you yours?”
He nods. I cross the room and hand him a couple containers full of Christmas Eve dinner.
“Mom?” Everett asks quietly as he holds up the box he’s carrying.
“Oh! Thanks, Everett.” I turn back towards Mrs. Parker. “We’ve brought you a few Christmas presents. You don’t need to open them now. I imagine you’ll want to wait until tomorrow.” I glance at Jimmy. “Where should the kids put your gifts?”
“Um.”
“You can set them all on my table,” Mrs. Parker comes to his rescue.
My kids begin to pile the presents on a little mobile table Mrs. Parker was given to eat her meals on.
“Where will you put your food?” I ask.
“It’s no problem. I can just hold the container in my hands.” Mrs. Parker smiles up at me. “This is truly kind of you all.” Tears fill her eyes. “I felt so bad that Jimmy has to spend Christmas in the hospital with me instead of in the comfort of our home. But you all are making this time so much happier for us both.” Her eyes stray towards the gifts. “I think you went overboard with the gifts. But thank you.”
“Oh,” Kookie jumps in, “this is nothing. Mom makes a habit of going overboard.”
Everyone laughs as his eyes kiss mine.
I just shake my head and turn back towards Mrs. Parker. “These three are for you. And those three are for Jimmy.” I gesture to the two piles my kids created on her table. Then I turn towards the one Kookie set down next to her nightstand. “That one is for Jimmy too. It’s too heavy to put on your table.”
I glance at Jimmy. He looks really excited now. Can he tell it’s a skateboard?
“Thank you,” Mrs. Parker responds gratefully. “We will wait until tomorrow to open them. It’s so wonderful that we’re going to have a real Christmas!”
“We’re going to bring you some Christmas dinner tomorrow night too,” Harmony informs her sweetly. “My mom always cooks up a huge feast. We eat at three o’clock, so I can bring you something to eat around five thirty. If that’s okay.”
“That’s wonderful, Harmony. Thank you.” Mrs. Parker smiles at her affectionately, and I can see that Jimmy’s mother already approves of his new girlfriend.
Just then, I notice that Noel is still holding two cups of hot cocoa.
“Oh! And my boys insisted that you both needed some hot chocolate,” I inform Mrs. Parker. “Noel? Can you hand a cup to Jimmy and bring the other one over here?”
He does my bidding, and I put Mrs. Parker’s cup on her nightstand.
“We don’t want to overstay our welcome,” I murmur. “But please let us know when you head home. I’d like to bring you a few meals as you ease into being at home again.” I ask for her phone number and then text her so she’ll have mine.
“Ann, I don’t know how to thank you. Oh! I guess the first step would be to tell you my first name, so you can stop calling me Mrs. Parker. I rarely go by that anymore. I’m Catherine.”
“It’s wonderful to meet you, Catherine. And there is no need to thank me. We all need a helping hand from time to time. Someone has always been there for me in my time of need.”
I think of all the darling women at my church who stepped up to take care of me and my family when we needed help.
“I’m happy to pass it forward.” I glance at Jimmy. “I’m just glad that we found out in time to give you a merrier Christmas.”
“Well, you have certainly done that. Thanks again.”
I turn to address the army of kids standing behind me. “All right, guys. Let’s head home. We need to get ready. Our company will arrive soon.”
Lyric catches my attention. “I’ll bring Harmony and Janna with me,” he offers.
I nod as the rest of us head out the door. “See you soon. Goodbye, Catherine. Jimmy,” I incline my head in his direction. Still stymied by the striking resemblance he bears to a certain boy from South Korea.
After saying our farewells, we head home to prepare for Lyric’s family, who will arrive within the hour. Tonight is sure to be a good time. And, also, a busy one.
