A Gift for Pop

A Christmas Gift for Pop




My Pop was a real character. Profoundly religious, gruff, loving; Pop was always the most difficult and often infuriating person to buy a Christmas present for. Even if he was pleased with what you selected for him, you were sure to get a lecture on the value of a dollar. Pop was sure to remind you that, you had been told there was nothing he needed.

Pop was from German decent; the region of Alsace Lorraine. His parents brought the family to and became citizens of the United States, when he was a boy. He never lost his native language but neither he nor my Grandmom ever wished for the children to learn it. This never stopped my Grandparents from speaking it between themselves.

What turned out to be a year before he took ill, eventually dying, I was pondering what gift I could get that would help me to avoid catching hell. With input from Rex, my multi-lingual husband, we came up with what felt like the perfect gift for my Pop. I was going to memorize the ‘ Lord’s Prayer ‘ in German. I had five weeks to accomplish this. It would be the best present ever and Pop could not lecture me about it.

By agreeing to teach me this One , Big ‘,Beautiful, prayer, Rex was taking on one big challenge. I just never realized how much I was going to put my man through.

To begin with, Rex claimed I bastardized the German language with a Philly accent. OK! Granted, I say things like dog in a way that I can’t even spell. Where I come from coffee has the same non existent vowel sound.
Skating, raking, breaking all end with a sound like “-en”. Every kid got fidy cent for the Good Humor truck. So, you can see the time he had with me.

I worked diligently, memorizing every word. The tough part would be pronunciation. This very often made Rex feel nuts.

Finally, the day of reckoning had arrived. It was Christmas morning and I was dialing Pop’s phone number “Merry Christmas, Pop’, I chanted to a gruff reply, “I have a present for you that you can’t lecture me about. I didn’t spend one cent”, I declared. “Oh ya do, do ya”, he answered. “Sit down Pop and just listen, OK?”, I requested. “All right, I am ready”, I was told.

My Pop laughed so hard, I was certain there were tears in his eyes. The Joy of it was, I heard real pleasure coming from that old man who I loved so much. I have since forgotten most of the words to that prayer. I will never forget how much my saying the words to this prayer, in Pop’s native, low German tongue, created such happiness for the beloved man:


Vater unser, der du bist im Himmel,
Geheiligt werde dein Name.
Das Reich komme.
Dein Wille geschehe,
Wie im Himmel also auf Erden.
Gib uns unser tagliches Brot
Und vergib uns unsure Schuldigern.
Und fuhre uns nicht in Versuchung,
Sondern erlose uns von dem Bosen.
Denn dein ist das Reich, und die Kraft,
Und di Terrlichkeit, in Ewigkeit,
Amen


This precious gift then, became a, present for the two of us. I love you Pop.