It was after midnight when I arrived back at our home on Christmas Eve.
The last worship service had started at 11 p.m.
No cleaning up the sanctuary this evening, I’ll carve out time for that on Thursday.
For now, it was turning out lights, securing doors, turning down thermostats, and alarming the building.
A bit after ten on the morning of Thursday, December 26, I made the short walk to Trinity.
The building was quiet. This was a holiday for our staff.
We had a small wedding scheduled for Friday afternoon.
I needed to touch up the Sanctuary from our four Christmas Eve worship services. That included making sure the restrooms were in good shape too.
Around one o’clock, with the tidying up completed, I started my walk back home.
I crossed over the creek on Stuart Hall Road. Safely crossed the quiet Baldwin Road. Worked my way up the steep Stuart Hall Road hill, and at the top merged into Sweetbriar Road.
As my feet turned me into our driveway, I noticed a red envelope on our front porch. I walked over, picked it up, and entered the house via the side entrance.
In the eat in kitchen, family members were finishing up lunch. I handed the envelope to my wife, the Commander Supreme, to open.
The envelope was addressed to Betsy and Bill Pike. No address, and no return address.
Inside was a nice Hallmark Christmas card with this message on the cover: “Love is an amazing thing, if you pass it on, there’s no stopping it.”
On the inside the Hallmark message was: “Sending love to you. At Christmas and always.”
Additionally, there was a handwritten note: “Bill and Betsy, Merry Christmas!! We heard all the children will be in town after Christmas, that is wonderful. We hope to see you soon. Treat the Grandkids!” Tom and Linda
The ability to treat the grandkids would come from the one hundred dollar bill that was also inside the card.
The Commander and I were stunned and dumbfounded. We knew some Toms and Lindas, but our brains could not figure out a couple in our circle of friends named Tom and Linda.
For several minutes, we racked our brains,
The Commander insisted that we had no one in our address book listed as Tom and Linda.
Her insistence was that the card must have come from someone at church. Someone that knew me, but maybe who also knew the Commander on the periphery.
I scanned through the church directory. I found Toms, but no Lindas, or I found Lindas, but no Toms.
Our two daughters, Lauren and Elizabeth, chimed in with possible suggestions, but we had no match for Tom and Linda.
The Commander suggested Richmond writer, Tom Allen, as the possible delivery man, but his wife isn’t a Linda.
Again, the Commander reiterated that Tom and Linda must be from Trinity. She thought of a Linda from Trinity that we both knew. But, I reminded the Commander that Linda passed away a few years ago.
Even our two grandchildren, Caroline and Hudson, chuckled at the back and forth banter.
In silence, our son-in-law, Doug, watched the unproductive search for Tom and Linda. Elizabeth’s friend Jackson was a quiet observer too.
Like a bulldog with a bone locked in his jaws, the Commander was convinced that Tom and Linda had a Trinity connection. She encouraged me to reach out to my fellow staff member and family friend, Judy Oguich, to see if she could identify Tom and Linda.
With my search of the Trinity directory complete, I was walking out of the kitchen to return the directory to its resting place. That’s when our youngest daughter, Elizabeth, shouted out: “Christmas prank.”
The Commander and I had been duped. Even our grandchildren, Caroline and Hudson, knew this was a prank.
Shocked by this elaborate deception, we did the only thing we could do— shook our heads in disbelief and laughed.
For the next few minutes, the clever schemers revealed that the idea had come from an internet prank.
The names Tom and Linda were the parents of a friend where Lauren and her family live in Summerfield, North Carolina.
Elizabeth at some point on Thursday morning had purchased the card.
Her friend Jackson addressed the envelope and scribbled the note inside. He also provided the one hundred dollar bill. Jackson was concerned about his loaned investment. He was assured that the one hundred dollar bill would be returned to him once the scam had been completed, and it was.
Deep inside, Elizabeth knew that I would see the envelope on the front porch. She also knew my instincts— that I would pick it up, bring it inside, and hand it off to the Commander Supreme which is exactly what transpired.
I’m still trying to figure out how Caroline and Hudson played their roles so well. Like everyone else in the room no one gave a hint that a prank was at play.
In retrospect, we should have suspected something. Unnoticed by the Commander and me was our daughter, Lauren, who was inconspicuous in using her iPhone to film her floundering parents.
When I was a high school English teacher, I loved introducing students to American writer and humorist, James Thurber. His quote about humor has stayed with me: “Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility.”
For about fifteen minutes there was a baffling mental chaos taking place between the Commander and me. That chaos was stirred by some timely prodding from Elizabeth and Lauren.
Yet, since Thursday, in a couple of quiet, tranquil moments, I have found myself chuckling as I relive the pranked script.
For the rest of our lives, Tom and Linda have become a part of our family.
Their legacy has already been appearing— I wonder if Tom and Linda will stop by this afternoon, or maybe will see Tom and Linda at the Jefferson on Friday.
Not wanting to lose the euphoria of having pranked her parents, on Friday afternoon during our annual visit to the Jefferson Hotel, Elizabeth snookered her unsuspecting brother, Andrew, into the prank. Initially, Andrew bit, but not as fully as his clueless parents.
The best part of Tom and Linda’s fifteen minutes of fame is they made us laugh.
In a mentally healthy way, my hope for you, me, we, us is that gentle humor and laughter will find an entry point into your life. Good Lord knows, we all need to laugh to take the sting out of a tough day.
Perhaps like me, since Sunday, you have been taking in the news coverage of the passing of Jimmy Carter.
While we were watching the evening news, a reporter was revisiting Mr. Carter’s devotion to his church and God.
In this segment Mr. Carter was asked about God and his ability to answer prayers.
Here is what Mr. Carter said: “God always answers prayers. Sometimes it’s yes. Sometimes the answer is no. Sometimes it’s you gotta be kidding.”
Mr. Carter’s answer was perfect, especially, “you gotta be kidding.” That last line made me laugh.
Tom and Linda made us laugh.
Maybe the irony of them becoming a part of our family is linked back to the words on the cover of the Hallmark card: “Love is an amazing thing, if you pass it on, there’s no stopping it.”
There is no kidding about the power of love. I’ve been fortunate to have been surrounded by love my entire life.
Jimmy Carter knew the power of love.
He humbly lived it his whole life.
I hope in 2025, my old heart can be better at embracing the power of love and passing it on.
I think Tom and Linda would like that, and so would Mr. Carter.
Thanks to all you readers of Might Be Baloney, love you all, be safe, Bill Pike
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