Amends (December 18, 2020)

[Bernard A. Handler is my brother-in-law (husband of my sister Susan).  He has been a guest blogger here before https://filiopietismprism.blogspot.com/2014/12/searching-for-ernest-by-bernard-handler.html.  In fact, back in 2014 he was the first ever guest blogger here at The Prism.  This time Bernie shares a short story about a Christmas long ago and his mother's yearning in a time of Depression hardship to provide a little holiday cheer in her family's home.  It is a story of understanding and amends that captures the spirit of the season.]

Ellen Forbes circa 1930 with possible nephew and dog

Amends

by Bernard A. Handler

My grandmother Sarah Clay Forbes departed Leicester, England in 1908 with six kids in tow. She and her children sailed from Liverpool on a ship named the Hartford and arrived in Philadelphia to join her husband, Thomas Albert Forbes, a loom operator. The family settled in Germantown and grew: six more children, and in 1921 a seventh, my mother Ellen, the baby of thirteen. 

During the Great Depression the family managed - a rented roof overhead, food to eat, clean clothes to wear, but little else. As the Christmas of ’33 approached Ellen decided to find a Christmas tree for her family’s home on Bringhurst Street. One evening with the help of a friend, she snuck onto the grounds of the First United Methodist Church on the corner of Germantown Avenue and High Street and cut down a tree which she and her accomplice carried back to the Forbes’ household. 

First United Methodist Church of Germantown (circa 1905)

Six years later Ellen became the first in her family to graduate from high school, Germantown High, right across the street from the church, the same school from which my sister Beryl and I graduated in ’65 and ’67 respectively. Ellen first told me the story of the stolen tree several years before she died in 2009. My initial reaction was, “Geez Mom, a church. Why a church?” Her sheepish reply, “They had quite a few so I didn’t think they’d miss one.”

Certainly Esther, the current United Methodist Interim Office Administrator, nor the present pastor, Bob, missed the tree since they were unaware of Ellen’s 87-year-old transgression until Monday, July 27, 2020.  On that date, my wife Susan and I stopped by the church office to make a voluntary donation to the church and to confess Ellen’s crime–perhaps in hope of absolution.  Judging by the looks on the faces of Esther and Bob, and their positive reception of the background story, Ellen can rest in peace. 

Ellen Forbes Handler, thank you for guiding me with love and teaching me that through forgiveness peace is found.

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Copyright 2020, Bernard A. Handler

Published with the permissionof the author.

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