By Jessica Easthope
Laura Arcuri knows exactly what a Bright Christmas gift can mean to a child facing unimaginable loss — she lived it.
In 1966, at age 13, Arcuri celebrated her first Christmas without her father, Nicholas—a World War II veteran who grew up during the Depression and died suddenly at 48 from an infection.
Her mother, battling cancer, somehow still managed a tree and gifts.
Two years later, by Christmas 1968, both parents were gone, and Arcuri and her brother became orphans, leaving their Long Island home for relatives in Bushwick.
Arcuri, a parishioner of St. Matthias Church in Ridgewood, Queens still remembers the magic of Christmas mornings that somehow remained bright despite the darkness.
Scan the QR code to donate to The Tablet’s Bright Christmas Fund.
A tree. Presents. Someone, somewhere, who cared enough to make sure she and her brother woke up to joy.
Now, every year, Arcuri gives to The Tablet’s Bright Christmas Fund so another child in the Diocese of Brooklyn can hold onto a good memory when life gets hard.
She knows firsthand: when everything else is taken away, the memory of one caring Christmas can be the light that never goes out.
“It just becomes a harder time to celebrate,” Arcuri said, “but somehow you remember those Christmases and you get some strength and comfort from knowing that you had a beautiful Christmas.”
Those fleeting hours of joy — presents under the tree, decorations, a sense of normalcy — are the very memories Arcuri now tries to give to others.
She hopes her gift reaches a child — or even an adult — facing the same lean, painful holidays she once knew.
“The Tablet always succeeds,” she aid. “There’s a lot of need… a lot of people that are hungry or children that are struggling, children whose childhood might even be cut short.”
She’s seen how a single bright Christmas can sustain someone for a lifetime.
“Christmas is a time to help others,” Arcuri told Currents News. “It could be a boy, it could be a girl… to make it a Christmas that some family is going to remember for a very long time.”
For her, those are the Christmas memories that last.