After being bankrupted by the cabal and left penniless, I was forced to rely on our local food bank for food to eat. The food bank was run by my friend, Pam. I'd recently been diagnosed with Lyme disease and her daughter, a silver Olympic medalist in judo had also just been diagnosed. Pam was aware of the fact I knew a lot about Lyme so turned to me for help for her daughter, which is how Pam and I became friends.
In fact, quite a few of us in our group had recently been diagnosed with Lyme disease.
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Every Christmas season, Pam and local church ministers would get together and hold a Christmas dinner for those of us who visited the food bank. Each minister would choose a topic to be prayed for before the dinner. That Christmas it was Lyme disease.
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Pam had told me one of the local ministers would be playing Santa Claus, visiting with the kids and giving each of them a present. I thought this was fantastic in that for many of them it was likely to be the only gift they got.
I watched intently as Santa took each child on his lap and asked them what they wanted for Christmas. He was so good with the kids and they seemed to love him! Usually you get at least a couple of criers in the group but not with this Santa. He'd hand them a present and a candy cane from the box beside him and the kids were over the moon. It made me happy to see the kids so happy.​
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I decided I wanted to personally thank him for playing Santa for the kids so I got in line to thank him. Whe my turn came I laughed and said "Don't worry, I'm not going to sit on your lap."
He leaned back in his chair and gave me the strangest look...almost like a knowing smirk or smile.
"I just wanted to come up and thank you for playing Santa for the kids," I explained.
He remained in that same position with the knowing smile/smirk on his face.
"Well, that's all I had to say. I just wanted to thank you for making the kids so happy."
With that I began to walk away. Something was eating at me...I KNEW this guy from somewhere but I just couldn't place where.
"Wait a minute!" he called. "You didn't tell me what you wanted for Christmas! Come back and whisper it in my ear."
Whisper it in his ear? He hadn't had any of the kids whisper in his ear! Was this guy a perv or something? I wondered.
I guessed I was safe with as many people as there were in the room. I went back and whispered in his ear "A cure for Lyme disease for everyone would be nice."
He smiled the biggest smile at me...then reached into the box of candy canes next to him and made a great show of picking up as many of them as his hand could hold. Once he knew I'd seen him do this, he dropped all but one candy cane and handed it to me, then winked at me and whispered to me "I'm always at your side."
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It was definitely the strangest visit with Santa I'd ever had! It was still really bugging me as to where I knew the guy from though! I wasn't religious so it wasn't from a church. I was seldom in the town his church or these dinners were in...
And then it hit me...THE EYES! "I'M ALWAYS AT YOUR SIDE"! HOLY CHIT, JMMANUEL!
I ran all over the hall looking for him but he'd gone. I kept telling myself, No, it couldn't have been him!
But there was only one person I knew with those eyes, and Jmmanuel told me repeatedly "I'm always at your side." It would explain the knowing smile/smirk, his show of grabbing as many candy canes as his hand could hold to give me...then dropping them to hand me one like he'd given everyone else. It would explain him telling me to whisper what I wanted for Christmas in his ear and the wink he'd given me as I was about to walk away.
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I went to Pam and said "I know this is going to sound like a really weird question and don't ask me to explain but what color eyes does that minister friend of yours playing Santa have?"
"Brown."
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Many years later I said to him "You were Santa at that food bank Christmas dinner, weren't you? You knew I'd be coming up to thank Santa for doing what he was for the kids..."
he laughed.