3.) Your nativity scene.
When you’re seven and your Dad dies you will grasp at any belongings he left behind because they are proof that he existed and that he loved you.
Every Christmas your Mom will bring out The Manger and you will watch her set it up with care. She will arrange each figurine and she will adjust the lights and she will add her final touches.
When your Mom walks away, satisfied with the setting up of The Manger you will quietly slip over and play with the pieces. You will think about your Dad whose hands touched the same wood and built it from scratch and you will rearrange it your own way.
When you are grown you will lug that heavy hand built Manger to your own house and carefully set it up each Christmas. You will see other fancy nativity scenes in the stores, but you will refuse to buy them because your Manger was specially built by your Dad.
You will curse your Dad for building such a heavy, bulky Manger and for not bothering to varnish the wood. You will refuse to polish it yourself because you cannot alter something he made.
You will know that if he were alive he would tease you for holding on to it. He would tell you to throw the damn thing out. And you would. Because you would not need a bulky Manger in your house to remind yourself of your Dad if your Dad were here and had not died when you were seven.
Instead you will set up The Manger with care and adjust the lights and add your final touches. You will walk away satisfied with your work, only to notice your own daughter slip over to play with the pieces.
You will watch her and smile as she arranges the figures to her liking just as you did when you were a girl. You will appreciate her happy spirit.
You will think about your Dad whose hands touched the same wood and built it from scratch and you will wish he had lived to meet her.