Ornament

by Mike Marshall

Anyone who knew Kelly Paries wasn't surprised by what she did on Christmas Eve morning, hours after she learned her 16-year-old son, Kory, had died in a one-car wreck on Jeff Road.

Sitting in the waiting room of the Neurological Intensive Care Unit at Huntsville Hospital, where another son, Kris, lay unconscious with head injuries from the same accident, Paries turned to longtime friend Mary Howard.
"I've got to turn this around," Paries said. "I'm concerned that all of this has happened at this time of year."

This was a time when Paries and her family usually spent Christmas Eve in matching pajamas, a holiday tradition. At the family's home on Shoalford Drive in Monrovia were 15 unopened presents for Kory, scattered under a tree in the den.

Kory and Kris had bought a cheese grater for their mom on December 23, the night of the wreck. They had driven to Parkway Place Mall to shop, then to Hollywood Stadium 18 cinemas for a late showing of "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers."

Around 11:30 p.m., Kory, Kris and Ryse Anderson, a friend from Sparkman High School, were riding home when Kory lost control of his 1992 Mazda. He hydroplaned on the rain-slick road and slammed into a tree. The impact killed him instantly.

The next morning, Kelly Paries became consumed with the grief on the faces of family and friends in the Neurological ICU. How could she lift them out of this tragedy?

She also wondered what she could do to prevent her family's future Christmases from being ruined. Around 11:00 a.m. on Christmas Eve, she told Howard, one of her best friends, of her desire to salvage the holiday spirit.
"I want Christmas to be wonderful, like it always is," Paries said. "I've got to turn it into an uplifting experience."
Ultimately, Paries began to focus on Christmas ornaments. When friends asked what they could do for her, the answer was always the same: Bring an ornament to the visitation or funeral. Her plan was to put the ornaments on a tree that would be displayed at Spry Funeral Home and at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Slaughter Road, where Kory's funeral was to be held the morning of December 28.

She also wanted those ornaments to be among her primary, holiday decorations for as long as her family celebrates Christmas.

"Next year," she said, "I won't take out any of our old, traditional ones."

Howard wasn't surprised by Paries' response. She considered Paries, a friend and fellow church member for 14 years, one of the spiritually strongest people she has known.

"How do you think of these things when you've lost a child?" Howard asked. "It's only through inspiration."
The result of Paries' inspiration now covers her dining room table: 233 ornaments, all carefully arranged by Paries and Kris, home from the hospital since Christmas Day.

Christmas balls and glass ornaments are on the left side of the table. Ice skates and hockey players are in the middle. Angels are on the right.

"Each of them has a story behind them," Paries said.

One of her favorite stories is about the grade school daughter of her lawn-care man. After learning of Paries' request for ornaments, the girl gave Paries a cluster of gold bells. The girl's choice of ornaments came from a line from "It's a Wonderful Life," the classic holiday movie: Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings.

Another favorite story: the strangers who ring her door bell, hand her an ornament and leave without identifying themselves.

"I've learned how good people are," she said. "It was amazing. I had no idea about the depth people felt in our loss."

Early on the morning of December 26, Paries bought a 5-foot tree, a tangle of fiber optics that cost $39 at Target.

The next afternoon, she placed the tree in the north foyer of Spry Funeral Home. One by one, Kory's classmates, students and hockey teammates passed by the tree and hung their ornaments.

Members of the Sparkman basketball team brought an orange Christmas ball. Members of the Bob Jones High School hockey team hung a red ball.

Mary Howard's 15-year-old daughter, Cardin, hung a crystal snowflake - a tribute to a Christmas story Paries had written two years ago for her family and friends. The story, "Teddy Bears from the Kingdom of Light," is about a little girl who hears a bedside story from her father. It's a story about eternal life and the strength of a dying parent. The little girl's father had been severely injured during the holidays, when chemicals exploded in a factory. Paries' own father had died in a chemical explosion when she was a little girl.

At the end of the story, the little girl learns of her father's death.

"It will be OK, mommy," she whispers to her mother. "Daddy is in the Kingdom of Light."

Paries knows that's where Kory is, too. That's why she had the strength to come up with the idea about the ornaments and why she was able to buy the tree the day after Christmas.

But a 5-foot tree wasn't big enough to hold the ornaments brought to the funeral home. On the day of the funeral, Paries' aunt exchanged the 5-foot tree for a 6-foot tree.

Next Christmas, the Parieses will place the 6-foot tree in front of the window in the den and hang the 233 ornaments. One of those will be a silver heart with tiny cracks. The heart was purchased the same day Paries bought the tree.

"That's my ornament," she said. "It's my broken heart. I thought that was appropriate."