I hold both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in business, as well as a law degree. 

My parents never attended high school, and my siblings do not have college degrees. I am the “odd duck” in the family.

For almost 30 years I practiced corporate law prior to being elected to the Missouri General Assembly. I served four terms in the Missouri House. Currently, I write a monthly column for the St. Louis Call.

I mention the above not to boast but to provide background on the difference my Christmas angel has made in my life. If I had not had that encounter, my life may have gone on a different road.

My younger brother contracted polio when we both were in high school. He spent weeks in an iron lung, not knowing whether he would live or die. He lived but was never to walk again without crutches.

When I graduated from high school, there was no college money. Money was going towards my brother’s care. I enlisted in the Army and spent three years on active duty. Some of my Army friends had attended college and told me what a wonderful experience it had been, so upon being released from the Army, I decided to give college a try.

Using some of the money I had saved in the Army, I attended a small community college on the West Coast to see if I was college material. College expenses soon drained my funds, and I went to work over the Christmas season for the postal system. Christmas Eve was my last day with the post office. 

I took my postal earnings and went to a neighborhood bar to decide on my future. An older man came over and inquired what a young fellow as I was doing by myself in a neighborhood bar on Christmas Eve. His clothes looked as though they had not been washed recently and he gave off a body odor which suggested that he himself had not bathed recently. We began to talk and soon were the only customers in the bar. All other patrons had made their way home to spend Christmas Eve with family.

The next morning I came to the conclusion that in several years that old man would be me if I didn’t try to better myself. I decided that no matter the obstacles, I would get a college degree and pursue a dream I had long ago to become a lawyer – which I did because of meeting my Christmas angel many long years ago.

May all my readers have a wonderful and blessed Christmas!