How This PBS Star Finds ‘Healing’ Through Christmas Heirlooms
Movieguide® Contributor
MARKET WARRIORS star Bob Richter is sharing how Christmas can be a special time to remember loved ones.
“Vintage expert Bob Richter remembers the Christmas when his big brother Johnny came home from New York,” Guideposts wrote. “He’d traveled for two hours to the family’s home in Allentown, Pennsylvania, arms full of presents and handmade Christmas stockings for each family member. Johnny created each stocking with festive fabrics, like plaid wool, buffalo check and one with a ruffle for his mom.”
“It turned out it would be the last Christmas with his brother. Johnny died the following October. As Christmas neared, Bob and his family didn’t think they would be able to do any kind of holiday celebration,” Guideposts continued. “But they remembered those stockings Johnny made.”
Those stockings became a hallmark part of their family Christmas every year.
“When we saw the stockings, I think it was just the trigger,” Bob said. “Putting them up would actually be honoring Johnny’s memory and love of Christmas, and it would actually be wrong of us not to put them out.”
“Johnny was my biggest cheerleader,” said Richter, who was 15 when Johnny died. “He loved Christmas, and he loved that I loved Christmas.”
“Christmas is such a magical time. Sometimes life’s hardships like loss make me feel like joy is no longer a part of my life or that it’s gone forever. Christmas is a perfect time to find what still is there,” he said. “The holidays are a great time to reconnect to that joy.”
Richter features those stockings on his staircase at home along with other vintage memorabilia.
When Richter was 4, he came home one afternoon to find that Johnny had decorated a small tree and put it in his bedroom, just for him. Richter has a photo of himself smiling joyously in front of that tree.
“When I look at that picture I see the love that went into decorating that tree. I still have the Santa Claus that was underneath the tree and use it as a nightlight. It’s the one Christmas item I keep up all year long,” he said.
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While Christmas can be a very painful time for many, Richter sees it as a time of healing.
“When I was in Vacation Bible School my favorite song was ‘I’ve Got the Joy, Joy, Joy/Down in My Heart’ and so I feel like that’s part of my DNA — that joy. And ‘This Little Light of Mine.’ It’s our choice if we want to shine it or not,” he said.
“We always have that opportunity and I think that Christmas is the time that many people struggle the most with loss. It’s like I can’t possibly celebrate. I can’t possibly decorate because of this great loss,” he said. “I think that it’s actually an opportunity for healing.”
Richter knows of many people who can’t bear to use Christmas decorations that remind them of loved ones.
“One woman I know can’t bring herself to decorate a tree with her mother’s ornaments so she keeps them in a bowl on a sideboard,” he said. “Just passing them in her vestibule makes her happy.”
Another way he harnesses that Christmas joy is by giving. One of his most precious ornaments is three choirboy candles, which were all his grandmother could afford one year.
“She gave them to me saying, ‘These were so important to me. I’m sure you remember them from the sideboard. I’d like for you to have them,’” Bob said. “I use them every year and remember her in a joyful happy way. I think it’s easier for me to do that because they weren’t things I found in an attic or basement, but rather something that she gave me while she was still alive so she could see me find joy in them in my home.”
“Sometimes people don’t understand. They ask, ‘Why do you want this old stuff?’ It’s because this has magic in it. This has come through connection. It has continuity. And it brings comfort. It connects me to everyone I love whether or not they’re still on this earth,” he said. “Every time my hand is on something vintage Johnny’s hand is there too.”
Richter got all of his love for flea marketing from Johnny, who introduced him to it when Richter was little.
Richter remembered Jonny on the anniversary of his death this year on Oct. 17.
He shared on Instagram:
39 years ago tonight my brother Johnny left this earth. He was beautiful, talented, funny and kind. He introduced me to garage sales, junk stores, old movies, vintage clothing and most everything I love to this day. He even decorated my first Christmas tree for me. I still have those ornaments & happy memories.
I am so grateful I had a big brother to show me the way. In fact, over time I learned to replace grief with gratitude, and it has made all the difference. Instead of focusing on the loss, I now focus on how lucky I am to have had him at all. Johnny lives on in my humor, joy, compassion and overall style. When I am at my best, he’s always there.
In another Guideposts article, Richter shared that when he was perusing one day, he saw a portrait that looked just like his brother.
“Bob’s eyes travelled to the lower right hand corner of the frame. It couldn’t be. These things only happened in movies. But it was so. Before his very eyes was Johnny’s signature,” Guideposts wrote.
“The painting was of his brother and by his brother. While Bob had known Johnny had once painted, there were very few examples of his work Even their mother only owned two of them. Did Johnny paint this canvas one summer when he was home from art school and perhaps sell it then?”
“I didn’t go looking to find a piece of artwork done by my brother that day,” Richter told Guideposts. “But that’s what I found. Or, I should say, ‘That’s what found me.’ It’s an example of the spirituality, the unexplainable, I encounter at flea markets. The events that connect the past with the present in a marvelous way.”
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