I work in a nursing home and my job is to take care of the elderly.
This year, an old lady that I cared for, Alice, had gone through a difficult time. She got dementia and so she had been in the hospital twice. In November I was finally able to get her back to her "home".
Alice had thought her daughter was coming to visit her on Christmas day and that they were going to have the whole family together like the old days. When she finally realized that the happy moment was not going to happen, she was very sad. Knowing that her daughter was not able to make her feel happy, I hated the idea of her being alone on the holiday!
On Christmas Eve, I gave her a surprise by asking if she would like to go to a candlelight service at church that night.
I took her to her old neighborhood church where all her friends were there. We got to the church early. Then soon some of her friends came and they went over to greet her and sit with her.
The candlelight service was beautiful and Alice got a lot of love from her old and new friends there.
The truth of the story is that I am the one who got the best gift: the smile on Alice's face.