As Merry As Possible?

I got roped into participating in this year’s Secret Santa festivities at work. I didn’t want to participate, again, in adhering to my anti-holiday stance, but I guess it wasn’t optional. At least, it wasn’t optional for me. Cristina made me participate and I’m seldom ever in a position to tell her “No”.

Call it luck, fortune, or maybe even God’s will, but when it was said and done, I drew Gloria’s name. I knew exactly where I was going to go with her gift, seemingly from the moment I learned that she was my person.

Gloria and I have worked together for much of the past decade. She had briefly left the office to take another position in another building, though she was still with the same department. She returned to the office just over a year ago, this time in a lead position (meaning, one notch below from being a supervisor), and for the most part, she’s settled back in nicely. Gloria’s return wasn’t necessarily celebrated when it was announced and even when she physically returned to the office and was assigned a cubicle, people still seemed to question the move from afar. I’m not a betting man, but if I had to put money on it, I’d say that roughly half of the office didn’t like her during her first go-round and it’s safe to guess that half of the current office still doesn’t like her now.

Gloria is very direct and to-the-point. She’s very much of the no-nonsense mentality, though that is not to say that she doesn’t have a sense of humor. She gets my sense of humor, which for me, goes a long way. She speaks well, just like I do, and she’s smart. We’ve always gotten along and so when it was announced that she would be coming back to our office, I didn’t cringe or otherwise wish that it wasn’t happening. I suppose I embraced it, though I knew that she would be returning to a work environment where she already had her fair share of detractors, as well as new detractors in the waiting. Even as I write this, I’m sure that indeed, half of the office does not like her. The beauty of Gloria is that she couldn’t care less about the number of people who dislike her. I’m the same way. I don’t care if people don’t like me. Birds of a feather flock together, I suppose. Screw third-party perspective.

Gloria had a particularly tough year in 2024. Back towards the end of May and in the blink of an eye, her world changed forever. Gloria’s oldest child and only daughter was tragically struck and killed by a drunk driver as her daughter legally crossed an intersection. Her daughter was pronounced dead at the scene. In the six-plus months since her daughter’s untimely death, Gloria remains in mourning. She still has not yet returned to working her full-time schedule. Her schedule has been modified and she only works two days of the week, typically Wednesdays and Thursdays. If there’s one thing I know about Gloria, it’s that she can be stoic when she needs to be and like me, she can also put on a false front when it’s called for. Again, birds of a feather, you know.

Now, I’ve never considered myself to be especially perceptive or anything like that, but I remain convinced that Gloria is nowhere near being healed from her daughter’s passing. That sort of thing can take a long time to heal, if it’s ever going to. I think that she’s pretty much taking her life day-by-day and as best as she can. The department recognizes that and is not trying to rush her back into full duty. I recognize it too.

I think that there was a $25 limit imposed for this year’s Secret Santa. Whatever. Money was never going to be an obstacle for me, as far as putting together her collection of gifts, including when it came to acquiring the three main gifts that comprise the proverbial meat of this collection. I set out to make her gifts memorable for the occasion, as well as to commemorate, at least for Gloria, the year that was.

I don’t know if Gloria is the religious type, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me in any way. Regardless of whatever spiritual beliefs she might maintain, I knew that she would appreciate these two angelic displays.

I had also found her an autographed mini football helmet (not pictured). I know that she happened to be a fan of the Los Angeles Rams, but I couldn’t, in good faith and conscience, spend my hard-earned money on anything related or connected to the Rams. After all, they defeated my Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl LVI, and I guess you could say that I’m still sore from that defeat. So, I had to find a way to justify purchasing such memorabilia. Drawing from my recollection of the various players to have played for the Rams, both the Los Angeles and St. Louis iterations, there was one player whose autograph I was more than willing to pay for, even if on a Rams helmet.

That player is none other than running back Marshall Faulk, who has since retired from professional football and is now in the NFL Hall of Fame. That wasn’t the reason why I decided to buy a helmet that Faulk himself had signed. Faulk starred at San Diego State University in the early 90’s and would eventually become the #2 pick in the 1994 NFL Draft by the Indianapolis Colts. After the 1998 season, Faulk would be traded to the then St. Louis Rams, where he would win a Super Bowl in 1999 and ultimately retire in after the 2005 season. Being from San Diego myself and as someone who was accepted into SDSU (but never enrolled), I would not turn down anything signed by Marshall Faulk. So with that helmet, I combined her affinity for the Rams with my own ties to San Diego, albeit from a university that I chose not to attend. I had also looked for a Rams helmet signed by Charles White, the Heisman Trophy-winning running back from USC (where I enrolled and ultimately graduated), but apparently that’s a harder autograph to come by, so Faulk was the choice, though nothing that I would ever look down upon as some kind of consolation prize. For those of you who know the NFL, you know that Marshall Faulk was one of the greatest running backs to ever play the game.

I know that time will continue to pass and Gloria will continue to heal. Another year is just on the horizon and who knows what 2025 will have in store? I know that she will continue to carry a heavy heart and I don’t think anyone can blame her. At least, no one should. There’s a lot of evil in the world, as well as within our office. If I know Gloria as well as I think I do, she will continue not to give a fuck about what anyone thinks about her and she will live her life by her own rules and as she sees fit.

I shall do the same. Fuck other peoples’ opinions. They don’t matter.

I just hope that I was able to help her to have as merry a Christmas as I could possibly deliver.