Joseph Merrick & Christmas

Now that we're into the Christmas season, I'm reminded of what Christmas meant to Joseph throughout his life.

During his childhood, while his mother was still alive, his family might have been able to enjoy a modest Christmas. His father worked two jobs and his mother ran the family haberdashery as well as managed the household of three children, but perhaps they had enough for small gifts for the children.

After Mary Jane died, though, the family fell on hard times. Rockley Merrick remarried a widow named Emma Antill. She had two daughters of her own and was cruel to young Joseph when he was unable to find work. His father made him hawk haberdashery goods, but beat him if he didn't meet his quota. Finally Joseph fled to his uncle's house, where he stayed for two years.

Joseph continued hawk his father's goods, but his appearance drew unwanted crowds of jeering followers, and finally the city refused to renew his hawker's license. Unable to find work, Joseph resorted to admitting himself to  the Leicester Union Workhouse. It was just past Christmas and a terribly sad time to part from loving relatives. Charles must have been heartsick to let Joseph go, but he too had no choice - with a growing family, he could no longer support Joseph.

The workhouse was a grim place of long grueling hours, filthy living conditions, and poor nutrition. At Christmas the inmates were served plum pudding and extra rations of gristly meat, but there was very little holiday joy.

Joseph lived there for four long years. He remained bitter about that terrible time for the rest of his life. Going on the road to perform as the Elephant Man came as a welcome escape and a lucrative way to pay his way in the world. Perhaps his managers and fellow performers enjoyed Christmas dinners and gifts in their small close-knit community.

Fast forward to 1886 and the London Hospital, where the London public, generous patrons, and the hospital committee had guaranteed the Elephant Man a home for life. Settled in comfortable rooms, Joseph was visited by Princess Alexandra, who later sent him not one but THREE Christmas cards, each with a personal message. Gifts poured in from friends, hospital staff, and the public. The hospital always did a bang-up celebration, with the doctors serving a holiday feast and putting on a musical show for the patients. Santa brought presents for the children, and nurses decorated the wards and trooped around singing carols. Even the porters and ward maids were treated to a dance and a midnight supper.

One  year, Joseph was taken to see a Christmas pantomime, "Puss in Boots." To say he was thrilled is an understatement. Treves tells us he believed in the story as if it were real, and talked about it for weeks afterwards.

Then there was the famous dressing bag (or case)  so beautifully depicted in the film. At Joseph's request, Treves bought him a dressing case equipped with elegant fittings-- a silver-backed hairbrush, toothbrush, comb, razor, cigarette case and mirror. Treves removed the mirror and filled the cigarette case with cigarettes so Joseph could pretend to smoke them. Though he couldn't actually use a single item in reality, he spent hours imagining himself as a dashing young Don Juan preparing for an evening out with the ladies.

In his last years,, Joseph must have often given thanks to God for bringing him safely into harbor among loving friends to celebrate Jesus' birth. The story of the baby born to a young woman with the same name as his mother and a humble carpenter, also named Joseph, must have been a powerful comfort and inspiration to him. It was the message of God's love for even the poorest people on earth, as he himself once had been.

MERRY CHRISTMAS, ONE AND ALL!