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being wounded overseas. I was his nurse at Fort Collins.”
    “What’d he do for work after he recovered?”
    “He worked for the railroad and did cattle auctions on the weekends.”
    “Is that what he wanted to do?”
    “He wanted to honor God. That meant feeding his family and taking care of all the bills, so that’s what he did. He did whatever he needed to do in order for us to survive.”
    “Did he enjoy the work?”
    She shrugged. “He enjoyed providing for us. I don’t know much about how he felt about the work. His mind was on God and spending time with us when he had the chance.”
    I nodded. “I wish I could have met him.”
    She nodded. “You would had loved him, Kyle. I know he would have loved you too. You remind me of him a lot.”
    Smiling, I said, “It would have been neat.” Turning away from the picture, I continued, “I’m going to head out and finish up salting the walkway and then get started on shoveling off the roof.”
    “Okay, thank you. Be safe out there.”
    Walking back through the house, my thoughts stayed focused on my late grandpa. It fascinated me that he didn’t do what he wanted, but instead focused on God and his family. He was smart, just like me, yet he didn’t choose a profession he wanted to do. He cared more about God. Did he find value and purpose in that? I wondered.
    It made me feel a bit ashamed to be so privileged to get a year off to figure out what I’d do when there were people like my grandfather who did what they had to in order to live. I didn’t know what my future held, but I did know I could do something now, and that was to stay and help Grandma. Before I headed outside to work, I called the church and found out the times for Christmas Eve services on next Saturday.

CHAPTER 5
    P ulling into the parking lot at Calvary Community, I was blown away by the amount of cars parked outside. Arriving ten minutes before the start of the service, I quickly learned that my grandmother was right about coming early. I felt bad and pulled up to the curb outside the doors.
    “I’ll go park and meet you inside.”
    “We can park. It’s okay.”
    I shook my head. “It’s going to be too far for you to walk. Let me go park.”
    She smiled at me. “Thank you, you’re a sweet young man. I’ll be waiting by the entrance to the sanctuary.”
    I nodded and got out of the car to help her out.
    Getting back in the car, I rubbed my hands together to catch a little warmth. Swarms of people were heading into the church. It intrigued me that they were all there to hear the same message they probably heard every year. Once there was a break in the people in front of my car, I put the car into drive and went to go find a place to park.
    Inside the church, I un-wrapped my scarf and put it in my coat pocket as I scanned the crowd of faces in search of my grandmother. Spotting her as a man stepped out of the way; I smiled and made a beeline over to her.
    Letting her grab onto my arm, I led her through the wooden door into the sanctuary and down the aisle to find a seat. As we squeezed by people in a pew to an empty spot in the middle of the row, she pulled my arm back toward her to say something. Leaning back, I put my ear over to her.
    “Where’s the girl?” she asked.
    “Let’s just get to our seats, Grandma,” I replied. Continuing to our seats, we sat. Leaning over to her, I said, “I’m pretty sure she’s part of whatever is going on . . . so she’s probably backstage somewhere.”
    My grandmother opened a pamphlet she had received on the way in and began looking at it. “Looks like this is a bunch of skits and some singing.”
    “You don’t sound too thrilled.”
    “I just like a little preaching. I like baby Jesus.”
    I laughed. “Well, I’m glad it’s not just a ton of preaching. It’s a little less intimidating to be here. Maybe they do that on purpose for people who don’t usually attend church?”
    She raised an eyebrow. “Intimidating?