After Sister Elaine Dalton's father passed away, she realized the greatest present he gave her was something far too precious to come from a store. It was his presence.
Elaine was only 18 and her father, Marvin Schwartz, only 45 when he got a cough. Elaine would come up often from BYU to Ogden where her family lived to visit him in the hospital and he told her he was proud of her and to be a good girl. She never imagined that this seemingly inconsequential sickness would take him from her. After a month, he died of what the doctors pronounced viral pneumonia.
The Christmas after he died, they worked extra hard to make it a happy holiday. Each of her siblings and mother wanted to get each other thoughtful presents that would make them especially excited. Elaine recalled they had never bought so many presents as they did that year.
Christmas morning came, and everyone once again gathered in the living room to open presents, just as they did last year. There was joy in the air as they found special gifts from each other under the tree, but even with a semblance of a happy Christmas morning, in one moment everyone looked at each other and began to weep.