Esther Tucker’s life and steadfast commitment to her faith and church took center stage ahead of the holiday season when members of the First Universalist Church of Auburn honored her with a performance of an original one-act play based on her life.

Tucker, who has spent all 93 years of her life attending the church, was deeply moved by “About Love: Esther Tucker’s Story,” which highlighted the effects she had on members of the congregation, the church as a whole and for those in her community. In turn, much of the dialogue of the play, written by Charles Nero and Toby Haber-Giasson and based on an interview with Tucker, reflected on Tucker’s credit to the church for a life full of love and blessings.

“There’s no other church I would go to, so I just wouldn’t have a church,” actors Cindy Greenhouse and Cynthia Grimm recited, each playing an alter ego of Tucker’s. “This church has meant enough to me over the years to stay with it. We’ve weathered the storm I guess you could say.”

In a recent interview with the Sun Journal, Tucker called back memories of many holidays from nine decades, from bustling family gatherings in her youth to quieter moments of reflection today. Living independently in her Poland home, she reflected on ever-evolving traditions which have revealed the overall importance of connection, tradition and embracing change through the years.

Nowadays, Tucker finds joy in the childhood and midlife traditions she can continue that include attending the First Universalist Church of Auburn and community gatherings closer to her home in Poland.

Through all of life’s changes, Tucker’s faith in her church and its message have remained a constant source of strength and attending service for Christmas Eve is a tradition that continues to bring her peace. She said watching the families and children enjoy the festivities the holidays bring is wonderful, and it brings back memories of her own childhood, steeped in family tradition and in spiritual community.

“My memory is that my mother and her sister were very, very close, so we used to have Thanksgiving dinner for the whole family, then again at Christmas, and they would alternate,” Tucker said.

The holidays became hectic when her mother was tasked with Christmas dinner because she would do a second evening family meal for her father’s family.

“That was a lot of work, but still, it was a lot of family get-together,” Tucker said, adding that her mother’s efforts always made Christmas a happy time for everyone.

Christmas morning for Tucker and her two brothers was one familiar to millions of families — stockings and presents.

“We could hang our stockings and we were allowed to come down and see what was in them,” she said. “But we weren’t to touch anything on the tree until my parents got up.”

As Tucker grew older, this family tradition shaped holiday celebrations. She and her cousins would continue getting together for the holidays and though they felt they had become too old and too many to exchange gifts, they would do a Secret Santa, drawing each other’s names from a hat to present a single Christmas gift. It was really all about the gathering, catching up and sharing company, she said.

When Tucker and her late husband, Erland, got married, she began sharing Christmases with his side of the family who “loved me just like my own family does.”

Even recent family traditions, such as combining Thanksgiving and Christmas into a single gathering, are vivid in her mind.

When Erland passed, Tucker continued meeting with her brothers and their families. One brother’s family lived in New York and the other, in New Hampshire, so the Maine and New York contingents would split the difference and meet up in New Hampshire for the holidays.

“We would go and stay overnight in a hotel and celebrate that way. It was sort of a combination Thanksgiving and Christmas,” Tucker said.

In past years, Tucker helped organize celebrations for residents at the Odd Fellows and Rebekahs Home in Auburn. The fraternal order would throw parties and hand out gifts to residents — a good time especially for those who didn’t have family, Tucker said.

“Through the years, it’s meant a lot to me. I did all of that pretty much right up until now when I can’t get out and around so much,” she said.

However, with time comes change, she said. Losses in her family, as well as her own limitations due to age, have reshaped how she experiences the season. But it’s never a bad or necessarily lonely experience.

“I love to go to church on Christmas Eve, and Poland Town Seniors has a Christmas party, which is nice to do,” she said. “It’s fun to get together, and I enjoy doing that.”

Though physical gatherings are now rare, her family keeps her connected through phone calls and thoughtful gestures.

“All my nieces and nephews are from all over the place, but they are so, so wonderful to me,” she said. “Every year, my grandniece sends me a calendar from New York with family pictures for every month of the year. I got another one in the mail just yesterday.”

Tucker said the most important thing people can do to celebrate the holidays is to embrace everything, and everyone, that brings them joy.

“I think it’s really up to each individual to do what is right for them,” she said.