This story is what happened to me at Christmas.<o:p></o:p>

We would have had to spend the night of the eve together: my parents, cousins, uncles and grandparents ... waiting for  midnight to open the presents and celebrating the Christmas. But my father was called by his boss to go to work in Rome, he is a  policeman, and so with a heavy heart my mother was preparing his suitcase and I laid the table again by removing his place... for me it wasn’t Christmas... there were many other people but without my dad it wasn’t the same thing. At 11.10 we went all together to attend the Christmas Mass, you know, I sing in the choir together with my cousins and my mother is the director. It was almost midnight and the Mass was over, while my mother was giving greetings and wishes I was all alone sitting on the wall waiting to leave ... suddenly I saw an old man approaching to me: his face was marked by the passing of time, his long and thick hair was cut by silver blades, his eyes were like ice but also showed the heat of his heart, his back was hump but wide and as strong as that of a strong and big worker. He did not tell me anything me, he only gave me a white rose and I told him that I did not have any money but, without speaking, he took my hand and kissed me as a noble, then he put the rose in my hand, in its bud there was a small piece of paper on which was written "Hope". When I raised my eyes he wasn’t there, suddenly behind  me there was an explosion of joy and then I saw m y father .. . at that moment the church bells rang rejoicing, it was midnight, it was Christmas...

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by Sara Palmiotta <o:p></o:p>