A Redbird Christmas
Mon., April 27, 09:17 AM
In what must have been a temporary case of senior dementia, I picked up a book that has been in the house for ages and began to read it, because I couldn’t remember having read it before. Even after I got into it, I didn’t recognize it. The book, by the way, was Fannie Flagg’s A Redbird Christmas. I thought I would take a look at it before I give it to the library, which is always looking for good Christmas stories.
I know I must have read it, because I mentioned it in an earlier post. Strangely enough, a “message” struck me this time that — obviously — I had not noticed before. There is a spoiler, because I think the message is important. Even with the spoiler, the story is well enough written that it’s worth reading.
Like so many of Fannie Flagg’s stories, this one takes place in a small town in the South. Mr. Oswald Campbell, a divorced man in his fifties or early sixties, retires there when his doctor tells him his health won’t survive another Chicago winter. He finds this tiny village on the Lost River, and the people — especially the unattached ladies — soon adopt him as one of their own.
The other newcomer to town is a little girl named Patsy, briefly living with some transient trailer trash who abandon her when they move on. She is taken in by Mrs. Frances Cleverdon, a widow who is active in the church and community service clubs. When it becomes obvious that Patsy needs a permanent home, Mrs. Cleverdon and Mr. Campbell decide to marry, even though neither had ever considered marrying again. (Her first marriage was too good to think she could re-create it, and his was so bad he didn’t want to hurt anyone like that again!) But they do like each other, and they love Patsy enough to want to make a family for her.
What struck me this time was that this was a true marriage of convenience. Yet no one snickered about these two “old people” getting married or made nasty remarks about “what they do with each other.” As I always say, it is no one else’s business what they do, as long as they take care of the child.
It really is too bad the rest of the world can’t function that way.
