A Moonlight Pub Christmas Miracle

Its that time of the year again! Those who truly know me, which are few and far between, think it strange of me to have such a fascination with the Christmas season given my history... but what can I say?

Despite being the orphaned daughter of a prostitute junky, who entered the foster system at the age of 2, I love the holidays. That, however, is due to my adoptive dad. When I was 9 my mom overdosed and died, but by then I was staying with a foster couple named Trudy and Ian Kelly and they decided to adopt me. Then a couple of years later, she got breast cancer and died that same Christmas; the day before the anniversary of my biological moms death. Despite how sad he was, Dad made a big to do about Christmas after the funeral and, having heard him crying the night before, I made him a tree box using the wood working tools mom had gotten me. On the box I wrote ‘I love you daddy!’ and I put a picture of mom’s head at the tip. I attached a sticky note to the edge of her picture saying she was our Guardian angel now. It made him smile for the first time since that day in the hospital. 

But her death also changed everything. We ended up leaving Boston and moving to Texas to be close to his parents, which is why I ended up being the only Texan who spoke with an Irish twang but wore cow-girl boots and could hunt with the best of them. Dad being an ex-Army Ranger meant that he started training me how to fight, use weapons, and survive under harsh conditions. Christmas in Boston and training in the woods during the summer became a family tradition. Grandpa coming along to help train me (he’s also a former Ranger) and Nana came to make sure we all ate something every once in a while.  

Being smart and not being allowed to watch TV I had nothing to focus on but school, training and helping out around the ranch. This was the reason why at 19, I was graduating from Texas State with a BS in Nursing. My Grandparents had died 2 years earlier so it was just my dad and I… but the day of my graduation came and on the drive there Dad was hit head on by a drunk driver. I waited for him, walked across the stage searching the crowd and walked outside after the ceremony to find the cops waiting for me… 

I spent my graduation day and Christmas break making funeral arrangements and fighting to keep control of the ranch from my money greedy uncle James. But, he had money and the judge thought I was too young to take on such responsibility so the day before Christmas I ended up homeless and completely family-less. 

My friend Nancy’s parents let me stay with them and I got a job working at the local bar with one of my granddad's old army buddies; baby Jesus was still looking out for me. Things were good for a while but then one night right before closing the Moonlight Pub got a visitor… the guy was definitely form out of town with his cloths and accent marking him as being out of place… Yet, that visitor was also about to shock me out of my cowgirl boots… 

Turns out he was a lawyer from Boston and he worked for Robbie O’Hara, who it just so happens is my biological grandfather from my father's side! I never knew my father and my mother had even left that line blank on my birth certificate which is why I had a hard time believing him until he showed me a picture… the guy in it had always come to visit me, no matter where or with whom I was… He always found me, always remembered my birthday and brought me Christmas presents… he was the guy whose cross necklace was sent to me in the mail about 3 months after the last time he popped up in my life. The guy I thought of as a protective vampire from my childhood was actually my father. I carried a piece of my in me and around my neck the whole time I spent wondering who and where he was! But, finding out who he was also brought home a different truth, he was the son of my grandfather Robbie O’Hara. I am the granddaughter of a man known as Boston’s most notorious and untouchable mobster. From one second to the next, I had a family and a home just waiting for me. A grandfather who had never stopped looking for me after discovering my existence at his son’s funeral. A grandfather who was waiting for me with open arms at the airport when the lawyer and I landed at Logan International Airport. A grandfather who, it turns out, loves the holiday season just as much as I do… 

That year, I spent my birthday in front of a Christmas tree listening to stories of my dads childhood antics and looking through a memento box he had of our time together; and which led my grandda to me… instead of running tabs at the Moonlight Pub while working the night shift…

That year there was no need to drive home for Christmas; I , Arrabella Kelly-O’Hara, was finally home!