Richmond boy receives Christmas guitar seven years after dad died

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The gift was left on the doorstep for Charlie, with a letter attached.

Erica Macklin took it inside and placed it under the Christmas tree for her nine-year-old son to open on Christmas morning.

When he did, it took her breath away.

It was a small guitar, painted deep blue with silver flames, chosen and purchased by her husband, Paul, shortly before he died seven years ago.

Paul’s death, the result of a workplace accident a few weeks before Christmas 2013, was a shock to his family. An amateur musician who sometimes played at restaurants in Steveston, he planned to someday teach Charlie, then two years old, to play guitar. He’d seen the instrument and bought it for his son.

In October 2013, Paul was seriously injured at work. He had skin graft surgery in November, but died from a blood clot 10 days later.

Macklin found the guitar in the spring.

“I don’t play guitar, and it was all too much,” she recalled during a Saturday interview. “I sold it on a Facebook bidding group. I really have no recollection of who bought it.”