The Christmas Blessing
It’s November 1944, and Amelia Richards is an unwed mother working as a hairdresser, barely making ends meet in California, as her fiancé has been killed in the war. James’s parents don’t know about her or baby Jimmy, so Amelia scrapes together money for the train so she can visit them in Montana. But before she can work up enough courage to knock on the Bradleys’ door, both she and Jimmy become ill with pneumonia. Desperate, down to her last dollar, Amelia leaves Jimmy in the manger of the nativity scene the Bradleys have set up in their yard. Surely they will find him, and he’ll be better off than remaining with her?
While Amelia is a complex character, the novella form doesn’t leave room for a lot of development for the others. An historical misstep: would Amelia really be able to so easily find a sleeper berth, when wartime trains were overcrowded with troops and people barred from driving private cars? I would have recommended this book if the ending hadn’t been tied up so patly. The story would have been more resonant if Carlson had opted for a less heartwarming fate for one of the characters.
