By Dan Aceto

Staff Writer

It was a day that would change Susan Garrard’s view of Christmas forever.

After becoming divorced, Garrard moved to Scarborough three years ago to start a new life. On Christmas morning, surrounded by her three children, she was apprehensive what the day might mean to them without their father.

“It had the potential to be a melancholy day,” Garrard said.
She wanted to start a special tradition that would help instill in them the real meaning of the day aside from opening presents, she said, and decided to take them for a walk by the jetty at Pine Point to reflect on the past year.

“I grew up near the ocean. It was in my blood and I always loved being in a coastal town. I needed it to refresh my soul,” Garrard said.

Before they opened gifts, the family went down to the jetty, hot chocolate in hand, to discover the real meaning of Christmas. Little did they know how soon that meaning would find them, Garrard said.  

Upon arriving at the jetty, Garrard said her son Peter, then 10, noticed something from the corner of his eye. When Susan Garrard walked over to join him, she was astonished by what she saw. 

“It was a pure white lily framed by speckled granite,” she said.

Peter Garrard said he and his family wondered where the flower came from and why someone would decide to leave it on the beach.

“It was just laying there on the rocks, it was the only bright thing,” Peter Garrard said. 

Susan Garrard said she and her children looked up and down the beach for any sign of life, but saw no one else.

 “I believe things happen for a reason and I truly thought it was meant for us,” Susan Garrard said.

After finding the flower, the family decided to throw the lily into the ocean as a symbolic gesture.

“I was really touched,” Garrard said. “A moment that could have been melancholy became awe-inspiring.”

When Garrard and her family got back to their house, focus shifted away from presents under the Christmas tree to talk of the lily. As they took their sea glass gathered at the beach, they made ornaments and on the back of each wrote: “Year One, Year of the Lily.”
“It represented where we were in life, it represented new beginnings,” Susan Garrard said.

And just as she had hoped, her family had a new holiday tradition.

Now the Garrards make the trip to the beach every Christmas morning and place their own flowers on the rocks by the jetty in hopes other people will be as inspired as they were. 

Susan Garrard wasn’t the only one who found the story inspiring – editors of “Chicken Soup for the Soul” did as well.

Susan Garrard, who writes stories as a hobby, said she submitted “Gifts of Bloom” on a whim and never thought she’d hear back from the book series’ publisher.

“I never thought it would make it into publication,” she said. “It was the first time I ever submitted anything to Chicken Soup, but I think their stories are very inspirational.”

The story can be found in this year’s, “Christmas Magic” edition of the series.

Susan Garrard said she originally wrote the story to “capture the moment.”

“It’s interesting, I originally wrote this piece for me, because I did not want to forget the details,” she said.

Although the Christmas tale was her first published story, Garrard has some experience writing on a professional level. 

She is a copywriter and public relations specialist and also was a technical writer for 15 years at a semi-conductor company. 

“While some of my peers were jazzed about the results of an experiment, I was always more concerned with the writing aspect,” Susan Garrard said. “I just always loved the written word and admired people that were able to convey a certain thought or emotion. There’s nothing more enjoyable than reading a book that is expertly written.”

She said one of the reasons she writes is to relive poignant memories of the past.

“There are moments in life that you need to capture,” Susan Garrard said. “That’s what life is all about – beautiful special moments that you don’t plan for … and that’s why I write, so I can conjure those moments back in my head and think, ‘wow that was a beautiful time,’” she said.

“Gifts of Bloom” is not the first time Susan Garrard has commemorated a momentous occasion in writing. She also wrote a story on the day each of her children was born.

 “If I didn’t write it down, I would have forgotten all the beautiful details,” Susan Garrard said. “We read them each year on their birthday and I always find myself remembering things I forgot.”

Garrard said it was important her children’s memory of Christmas that first year was not “tainted” by the divorce and that instead of looking back at the day with bad memories, they were filled with hope.

“The moment was transformed and there is a certain beauty to that. It was a reminder of the beauty of life,” she said.

Garrard’s children agree.

“It’s a really pretty place and it makes you feel much smaller,” said Peter Garrard, 13. “It’s a good place to think about grandma and grandpa and all the memories we had.”

Ben Garrard, 15, said the jetty allows him to look back on the good times he had during the year and reflect on what is really important in life.

“It’s good to focus on more than getting presents for Christmas,” he said.

Her son Owen, 11, said being at the jetty gives him time to’ “slow down and smell the roses.”

“When you drive by fast in a car you don’t see much, but when you walk along the beach you notice a lot more,” he said.

Susan Garrard said she considers finding the lily a “miracle” and that knowing something like this could happen at any time to anyone gives her a sense of hope.

“We viewed it as a gift. It changed our view of Christmas and instilled hope, beauty and purity,” she said. “Things that sometimes go by the wayside in life.”

Although Susan Garrard said she has never seen another lily at the beach, her family continues to leave flowers every year.
“Some people may walk by and not think twice about it, but hopefully that magic will touch someone else, because it certainly did us,” she said.

Staff Writer Dan Aceto can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 237.