Dec 22, 2016 2 min read

A week or so ago, I wrote about my best Christmas memory.

It was about picking up a Marine hitchhiking in a snowstorm and taking him to Effingham, Ill., and spending a wonderful Christmas with him and his big family.

After I sent it to Herald-Standard, I figured why not send it to the newspaper in Effingham, Ill. I thought what a trip if that Marine would still be there. It was too long for a letter to the editor so I sent it to the editor and asked him if he would print it. Well he did.

Well the editor added the words that should the Marine or someone from his family please contact the paper. Well I got a call from that editor. The Marine’s sister had called in to the paper and gave him her brother’s phone number.

He now lived in Edwardsville not far from were we picked him up 47 years ago. He was one of 13 children. The editor asked me why that stuck in my mind. I guess when we were on the front porch and the Marine rang the doorbell and then all the lights came on and kids started coming out of the woodwork. That is why it was my best.

Later I called the Marine, whose name is Bill. He added some personal touches to the story that only he would know. He remembers standing along I-70 with the snow swirling all round him and freezing when I stopped and gave him a lift.

After all these years we swapped stories and traded emails. Almost 50 years had passed and two old men remember the events of a single Christmas so long ago with such clarity. It is truly a special time of year.

George Kovach

Sterling, Va.