Holston friends share scenes from seasons past. Part 4 in a series

TIM BELCHER, age 36
Shades of Grace United Methodist Church
Kingsport, Tenn.
 
 
My Christmas memories of being a kid, of course, usually involve getting presents. From an adult perspective, my best memories are of re-connecting with family after an estrangement.

My hometown is Bowling Green, Ky. Right now, I live in a van in a parking lot in Kingsport. That van is all I have, and it doesn’t even run. I wish I could get it fixed and registered, but it serves its purpose. I don’t have to shell out money to pay rent, which will enable me to work on my book and become an author. It also keeps me out of the wind and the rain. I have a propane heater and four blankets to keep me warm.

Christmas 2012 was a good year. I visited my family for the first time in a while, and I remember that my mother made banana pudding. My sister told me to have all I wanted – until I acted like I was taking the whole bowl – and she said, “Well, not all of it!” That was a funny moment for us all.

This Christmas, I’m not at all interested in seeing my immediate family, for reasons I’m not interested in going in to -- although, I would like to see my cousin, for she has always been there for me through the thick and the thin.

The only thing I will be doing this year is going to Shades of Grace for a service and a Christmas dinner.

If it wasn’t for Shades of Grace, I wouldn’t have anywhere else to go.

See other memories in the series.