Holiday Party At Pat Crowley

Location: H.O.M.E. – Pat Crowley House

Date: Sunday, December 08, 2013; 2:30-7:00 pm

Without a question, Pat Crowley House is my favorite location and its residents are the ones I feel closest to.  So with the holidays coming up I mentioned to Wilson that we should throw them a party.  He worked with their housing manager to arrange a date where we would be following the scheduled ‘Paint The Town Red’ project on Sunday afternoon and continuing on with dinner.  Besides Wilson, I invited some of the regulars like Amanda, Noel and Irina.  Once the date and the guest list had been finalized, next task was deciding on the menu.  I was thinking of getting the dinner catered, but Wilson said that what the residents really enjoy is Chinese take-out from a nearby place.  Well, so much for a low-sodium diet!

The presents

There is no holiday party without presents and since there were 9 residents, I decided to do a goody bag for each of them.  Wilson warned me that the residents can get jealous of each other’s presents and so whatever I did, I had to ensure that each bag was similar to the other.  Else, he said, “they will fight like children”.  On Saturday evening I went shopping and after a few stops, had managed to get napkins, red ‘holiday-themed’ mugs, hand & body lotion and fluffy socks. I put all of these inside bags, leaving space for something Wilson wanted to put in – a ‘head massager’.  I had a feeling that the residents would like their presents…and while there was a small difference in the prints on the mugs, I assumed they would not fight over it.

It was snowing when Wilson picked me up in the afternoon.  We then went over to get Irina and finally Noel and her boyfriend Daniel.  Noel leads ‘Paint The Town Red’ project and so would be busy with that while we prepared for the party.  We arrived at Pat Crowley and while she led a origami project, Wilson and I sat in one room that looked like an office and ordered enough food to feed an army.  I went back outside to join the rest of the group and they were busy at work, making holiday cards and other paper-based objects.  I remembered making something back in the school and when I did that, Noel called it a ‘Cootie Catcher’.  I had never known what it was called, just how to make it.  The residents consider Wilson one of their own and had made a card for him.  I met Meredith, someone who I had never seen before, and she gave me a hug to wish me for the holidays.  I don’t know about the presents that we were going to give them, but I had certainly received my gift for the season.

Annabelle's sketch

I chatted with Annabelle, who showed us a picture that she had drawn a long time ago and had framed it.  Cynthia was making a Christmas wreath using green and red pipe cleaners and had to stop since she had run out of supplies.  Wilson, Irina and I then went to get food and also picked up Amanda on the way.  We came back and then arranged the three dining tables in the room into holiday style family setting.  All the residents came down and for the first time since I have been coming here, I saw all 9 residents together in one place.  I sat next to my buddy Andrew, and like everyone else, he was enjoying the food and the conversation.  After dinner we handed everyone their goody bags and they liked it a lot, though I did spot Annabelle comparing her mug design with Cynthia.   Despite all the things in the bag that I had picked out, by far the biggest hit was Wilson’s ‘head massager’.  As he demonstrated on everyone, they loved it, especially Jane, who was in raptures of ecstasy.  Amanda had bought sugar-free treats to serve as desserts, and that was a perfect end to the meal.  After clearing everything I sat down with Andrew and as has often been the case through our conversations with him, it was bittersweet and poignant.

He started with his favorite topic, which are guns and he demonstrated how strong his hands still are by doing some clenching exercises.  I asked him what he wanted from Santa for the holidays and he said “A pretty woman for companionship”.  He always has a knack of saying things that leave you speechless and this was one of them.  He said that he had many regrets and wished that he had never existed.  I said that’s not fair because there were people like Dorothy who needed him.  His face lit up at the mention of her name and he said that she had sent him a present.  I asked him what it was and he said he was saving it to open on Christmas morning.  Now, how can anyone not cheer for someone like Andrew after listening to this?  The fact that he still has that child-like enthusiasm or that he cares so much so as to save it as a special gift is something everyone can appreciate.  He went on to say that Dorothy’s daughter had delivered the present and signed off by saying, “She is as pretty as her mother”.  Well, really...there’s nothing more to add to this.

The tree

It had been a wonderful holiday party and the residents had enjoyed it for sure.  The buzz at our dinner table was exactly what you would want at the holidays and it was great to see them get excited after receiving their presents.  Normally after an evening like this I leave in a terrific mood, but not this time.  Irina told me that I had done something good that day but I didn’t feel like it. Yeah, I had helped arrange a party to try and bring cheer but that had been easy.  All I had to do was throw down my credit card.  But no amount of money was going to help me fulfill an old man’s fondest wish.  Before we left Andrew had said, “If I had married the first girl I liked at 20, we would have been married for over 60 years.”  Over the next few days I thought about him a lot, especially when I read a quote by the legendary creator of ‘The Peanuts’.  I wondered at what point Andrew had accepted that he would be living with a broken heart.  And that’s why it is important for us to go visit someone like him.  To keep reminding him that it would have been an awful shame if he hadn’t existed.  Just ask ‘George Bailey’. 

“I don’t know why there’s so much unrequited love in my strip, I seem fascinated by unrequited love, if not obsessed by it…There’s something funny about unrequited love – I suppose it’s because we can all identify with it.  We’ve all been turned down by someone we love, and it’s probably the most bitter blow in life.”

Charles M. Schulz

*All the client's names have been changed in order to respect their privacy