By Father Vic Gaboury

This article first appeared in Misyon in 1988. At that time the Columbans had a mission in the Diocese of Montego Bay, Jamaica.

It looked as though it was to be a busy time both before and during my first Christmas in Jamaica. I didn’t know the local customs and the expectations of the people. The parishioners of Seaford Town where I lived had asked for Midnight Mass. On Christmas Day there would be Masses in two mission stations at opposite ends of the parish.

The roads resembled Chinese noodles with twists and turns all the way. I’d be picking up 20 to 35 people along the way in a van made to hold 15.

On Christmas Eve there was to be an all-day and all-night church festival -- so where or with whom I’d have Christmas dinner wasn’t uppermost in my mind.

Cross at St Columban’s, Bristol, Rhode Island

Then I met Mrs Marriott on a Communion call to her home. She was a frail 87 years, living alone in a small shack, the corners held up by small stones, and the walls inside covered with newspaper to keep out the cool night air of the hills of Jamaica. There was no paint on the wall, nothing that looked like home -- but I know that whatever she had there was home to her and every rag and bottle important.

Fr Vic Gaboury with some of his flowers at St Columban’s, Bristol

She welcomed me in after the heavy task of getting her door opened. Inside, in one corner, she had her wood-burning ‘stove’, the metal rim of a car wheel. This lady wasn’t poor, she was destitute. We talked for some time or rather she talked for a long time, telling me of her life and what she was going through, alone and without any income apart from the equivalent of US$3.50 a month that was her Jamaican old age pension. Along the way I asked her what she would be doing for Christmas and she said ‘Nothing’, that she was alone and had no family.

So I told her that I would be alone too and could I bring my dinner there and have it with her. She thought that would be nice.

Japanese rock garden, St Columban’s, Bristol

On Christmas Day I didn’t finish my last mission station till 1:30pm. I thought she would be wondering if I’d forgotten our date. When I finally got home I heated up our meal and hurried to her place to find that she had no doubt I’d come eventually. She had a small two-by-two foot table covered with a clean cloth and two seats without backs. Of course, there was no running water or indoor plumbing. I’d brought plates and eating utensils and we sat down and she prayed for God’s blessing. She talked and ate with relish. I don’t know which she enjoyed the most -- but enjoy, she did! She talked of a relative who lived to be over 100 years, and I asked her If she would like to live that long. She said, ‘Well, if the Lord gives me that many years, I would like it, but if He takes me tomorrow, that’s O.K. too!’

I had wrapped a calendar with the picture of the Sacred Heart on it and some used clothing I had from home, washed and ironed. After dinner I gave them to her and she received them as if it were an everyday event. But as she unwrapped the calendar and saw the picture it wasn’t anything she said that stuck me but the way she touched and relished every detail as if it were gold. And it was the same with the other gifts as she opened them, saying nothing. After it was all over, she looked at me with a sparkle in her eyes and said, ‘Everyone needs a boost once in a while’.

Before I left she went to the corner of the room and started lifting many things off a large tin, saying she wanted to give me something to take home, and I wondered what she might have buried beneath all this.

Fr Vic Gaboury with some of his flowers at St Columban’s, Bristol

She finally reached the can and took out a bunch of bananas she had there - both for ripening and to keep them safe from rats. With pride she handed me a bunch to take home, happy to be able to give me something. Too bad I had to eat the bananas - because if I could put them with other things recalling special moments, they would be sitting there with the most memorable, reminding me not only of my first Christmas in Jamaica but of Christmas spent with a gracious lady. I came away with her words ringing in my ears, ‘We all need a boost now and then’ – and I didn’t have to reflect too long to realize it was she who had given me just that.

Fr Gaboury, ordained in 1957, served for 20 years in the Philippines before being assigned to Jamaica. He lives now in Rhode Island, USA, where he uses his talent for gardening and landscaping at St Columban’s, which serves mainly as a retirement home for Columban priests.