The Christmas Promise

It's the Christmas season, one year since Nicole Graham's fiancé Henry unexpectedly passed away in an accident. It has been a difficult year for her, but despite hiding away at times, she managed to come out the other end in part with the help of a wide and supportive group of friends and family. As she decides to move on with her life albeit with no set goal to move toward, she starts talking to her grandfather, affectionately called Pops, about the long time passing of Nicole's grandmother, Margaret, who was the love of his life, and how he managed to cope through his grief. To Nicole, that love must have been eternal in her mind as he never remarried. But the two biggest decisions Nicole makes are to sell what was her and Henry's toy store, the Village Toy Emporium, and to sell the house that Henry was renovating for them to move into after their wedding, the renovations which she has been advised to complete before selling and which she wants nothing personally to do with in not wanting any longer to be attached to the house. Through these processes, Nicole seemingly makes two new human connections. The first is with Joe Roberts, the carpenter who she hired to do the home renovations. And the second is the man at the other end of her cell phone. She took a play from Pops who said that he coped with Marget's passing in part by writing her letters every day to pour out his emotions, deep and mundane. Nicole's twenty-first century version of letters is to send texts to what was Henry's cell phone number. What she didn't expect was to get responses back from that person, he the recipient of Henry's old cell phone number, and who, in experiencing grief of his own, has managed to provide her with some comfort in those reply texts. The issues are if either of those two new human connections are for the long term, and if she may end up being hurt by opening herself up in both these fashions.—Huggo