By Barb Pert Templeton
Memorable Christmas stories are always fun to share.
No matter the age or the passage of time, most everyone has a special Christmas memory and so Blue Water Healthy Living asked some local notables to share their stories.
Yes, it was a tad disappointing to have only two of a dozen people respond to the request but it is the busy season. Besides even one is always better than none so I appreciate the thoughts from this pair of Algonac folks.
Algonac Councilwoman Dawn Davey
When I was 10 years old, in October of 1972, my dad died, leaving my 31-year-old mother a widow with six kids, ranging in age from 10 to 18 months. My father struggled with alcoholism most his adult life, so when he died my mother had to rely on AFDC (Aid to Families with Dependent Children) to provide for herself and six children.
Two things happened that Christmas in 1972; I learned there was no such thing as Santa Claus, and I learned the true meaning of giving.
That Christmas members of the Waterford Goodfellows and the Fraternal Order of Police took me, by myself, to shop for gifts to give my three brothers and two sisters.
This photo dates to 1967 when Algonac City Councilwoman Dawn Davey was just five-years-old. She pictured with her siblings on Christmas morning.
On Christmas Eve, after the little kids went to bed, I got to stay up to help my mom wrap the toys and clothes that strangers had given to her and the toys I picked out for them. Sometime after I went to bed she wrapped the gifts for me, and 50 years later I remember every detail about one specific gift. It was an ordinary doll, but she came with handmade clothes; not thin, frilly material clothes, but twill dresses with matching coats and hats. Corduroy pants and cotton shirts, with buttons and zippers, even two pairs of shoes. I couldn’t understand why someone I didn’t know did this for me, how did she know I would love it?
This photo is from 1974 and Dawn Davey said it was ‘when a man who never had any children of his own married a widow with six kids and then adopted those six kids two years later. We called him dad.’
I wish that she could have known the impression she made on a 10-year-old girl – that with just one doll and some clothes she taught me the spirit of giving. I learned, then taught my daughter and my grandson, that even the smallest act of kindness can make a difference in someone’s life. That we shouldn’t have to think twice about lending a helping hand whenever it’s needed, not just during the holidays.
Algonac Mayor Rocky Gillis
Christmas has always been a big part of my family’s life. Growing up as a child I remember waking up early on Christmas morning with my sister Brandy and I walking into the living room to the most magical Christmas tree, underneath was so many well thought about gifts. Then later in life I met my wife Mary at Christmas time in fact our first kiss was under a lamppost at Greenfield Village Holiday Nights, that night after we kissed that the movie style snowflakes fell upon us, one year later under the same lamppost I asked her to be my wife. Christmas is and always has been for me the most wonderful time of the year.
