Celebrating time together, remembering those not here

When Ellen Northen and her family went to St. Stephen's Episcopal Church on Christmas morning, they stopped by a dogwood tree in the courtyard, as they have countless times. Her daughters, Blair and Sarah Bruck, touched the bare branches, smiling.

It is their baby brother's tree. He died 15 years ago, and they planted the dogwood in his memory. Often, they'll take some of its leaves, or the first blooms of spring, to his grave.

Christmas, Ellen Northen explained, means "having our family together, and memories of those who have gone before us who are making our world what it is today."

Across the area, families celebrated time together.

St. Stephen's associate rector, the Rev. Louise "Weezie" Blanchard, addressed the congregation on Grove Avenue in Richmond yesterday morning. She told about a kitten that she and her husband finally, after years of unwavering refusal, agreed to give to their 10-year-old daughter for Christmas.

"My husband and I were not cat people," she said.

But, she noted in her sermon, four years later, that calico kitten was very much a member of the family.

"Especially at Christmas, I can't help but think what we learned about letting that cat into our lives, about accepting and loving, about considering the feelings of those we love and entrusting others with responsibility.

"All our memories," she said, "bring us to an understanding of something beyond ourselves."

At the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart downtown, Rosie Sinclair and her husband and daughter spent a few minutes after the late-morning service chatting on the sidewalk, energized by the sermon.

The cathedral has special meaning to Sinclair. It was the site of her parents' marriage, her baptism and her cousin's pipe-organ playing. Christmas guarantees 13 people at her house for dinner.

"I have made the same dish each year for 25 years: beef tenderloin," she said. "You have to be thankful that every year you spend together is a gift."
Contact Chris I. Young at (804) 649-6754 or .