<p>Yesterday, our family received a beautiful Wolfermans English Muffin and jelly gift in the mail. We absolutely love Wolfermans and don’t get them very often. They will be our holiday treat.</p>
<p>The card was signed “anonymous”…a wonderful surprise.</p>
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<p>That is exactly what I sent to Mom’s neighbors after they rushed her to the ER last week.</p>
<p>Consolation, I remember that wedding and all your advice. That poster is so generous with her advice that it is great you had a chance to do for her.</p>
<p>Jym, I remember that disastrous year of snowstorms. Three times my son had flown from CA to east coast, and got stuck in all 3. When the worm had back-to-back interviews at Princeton then SF, the CC community suggested a way he could take a train South, fly to Charlotte, and get to S.F. When he got stuck in Philly, on way to New Haven, and no trains running, Curmudgeon’s dtr already in NH for her interview, and they offered son a room. Fortunately, Yale gave son extra money for hotel in Philly, and extended his interview a day.</p>
<p>There have been many small but touching moments. Son was returning from camp, and there was a long delay at airport. He could only find a dollar or so in his carry-on, and was trying to figure out what he could get. Skinny as he was, the food stand compted him a sandwich. Then a nice young man found the worm’s cell phone in cab in Chicago, and called “mom” to find out where to send it.</p>
<p>I will always be appreciative of the owners of a facility that I worked in, for letting some adolescents remain for weeks or longer after insurance stopped paying.</p>
<p>I am also grateful for an on-line support group. Those of us going through surgery at the same time splintered off. We had a Secret Santa list that first year, and some of us stay in touch. When one member died, the only person I met IRL, the group could offer support to her husband and family. We’ve had similar situations on CC, with terrible losses.</p>
<p>At H’s office, several employees were involved in a fatal accident resulting in two young orphans. One of the employees has taken it upon himself to collect all recyclables and sell small pre-packaged snacks for the college fund of the orphans. He has done this quietly for many years and everyone at the large office is supportive of his efforts. It is a federal office but no one has ever complained. </p>
<p>They also spent several days capturing the deceased mom and dad’s voices from voicemail to give to the grandma raising the orphans, so they can have an auditory memory of their parents.</p>
<p>I collect stuff to send to Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota. </p>
<p>If I order clothes online that don’t fit, I put them in a priority mail box instead of returning them. If I find a good sale on school supplies in August, I stock up and add some to the current box. I don’t use the soaps and shampoos if I stay in a hotel. I take them and put them in a box to send off. Anything that is new and can be used. Then I mail a box when one is full and I have to make a trip to the PO anyway. There is a yahoo group called Friends of Pine Ridge Reservation that has a list of schools and social services organizations that take stuff.</p>
<p>^^^I do something similar. Whenever I buy clothes online that end up not fitting, I donate them instead of going through the hassle of boxing up and returning. There is always a huge need for new items with tags on - especially children’s clothes.</p>
<p>We adopted a family through a local charity program, Families Helping Families. You are given a list of ages, sizes and wishes, and asked to provide at least one article of clothing, one toy and one book for each child. Anything extra is greatly appreciated. They also list the nearest supermarkets with the hope that a gift card for groceries will be included in the gifts. Parents can also give a wish list but there is no expectation to provide a gift for the parent. </p>
<p>Our adopted family this year was a 26 yo mother, daughters aged 4, 5 and 6, and the mother’s 16 yo brother. The kids were easy, the brother a little tougher, but I think I did just fine and hopefully they will all be very happy with the gifts. The mother’s wish list was for a blanket, or a pot or pan. This broke my heart and let’s just say, come Christmas night, this young mother will be sleeping on a fluffy new bedding ensemble after preparing dinner for her family in a nice new set of pots and pans. There was also a little luxury treat for the mom and a laundry basket filled with kitchen and bath products. </p>
<p>I hope that this small gesture on our family’s part can bring joy to this family’s holiday. The sight of the entire warehouse parking lot filled with people dropping off armfuls of gifts, brought me to tears. The feeling I had that day was my gift!</p>
<p>The auditory memory brought tears to my eyes.</p>
<p>I thought it was such a priceless treasure and they were glad to be able to share the auditory memory with the young kids and surviving parents of the couple.</p>
<p>Here’s another one- and it is a real tear jerker. One of my D’s closest friends was diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer in September of their senior year in high school. The girls in her group decided they wanted to order t-shirts with a teal ribbon that said, on the front “Cancer has no friends” and on the back “but G*** does”. They were planning to wear them on the girl’s first day back to school after her first chemo treatment. Word spread and more and more kids wanted them. The girls organizing it decided to charge $5 extra per shirt and purchase some fun things for G*** to do while she was going through treatments- hand held games, soduko books, etc. There was an overwhelming response and they ended up selling 400 shirts. For some perspective, there were about 250 in their graduating class/1300 in the whole school. The kids were allowed to have a special assembly to present the gifts to G<strong><em>. There was money for a lot of things for her, but also gas cards for her parents (she was getting her treatments about 45 miles away) and the final payment due for G’s Spring Break cruise. Throughout the year, each band instrument section had a week where they “cheered up G</em></strong>” in some way. Band parents made meals for the family at least once a week. I was lucky enough to spend her 18th birthday with her on the spring break cruise. </p>
<p>Soon after the Spring Break cruise, G*** had surgery and was announced cancer free that May. Two weeks after graduation, they found out it was back, with a vengeance and it was inoperable and untreatable at that point. She passed early that July. There is now a scholarship in her name at the high school and kids and parents come back and work a spaghetti dinner each year to keep the scholarship funded.</p>
<p>I gave cash to two very nice people who have fallen on hard times. I wish I could give more. They don’t deserve what’s happening to them.
Edited to add that I am so very blessed to be able to do so.</p>
<p>Glad G***and her family were able to see how much she was loved while she fought for her life. Very touching! </p>
<p>Cancer is so nasty, aggressive, and relentless.</p>
<p>I am trying to provide funds for the head of GEHO-Uganda. (You can look it up facebook.) They provide safehouses and food for gay, lesbian, and transgender people who are constantly under threat. He has an MBA from the University of Toronto, but felt called to go back and do what he could. Two weeks ago, he was beaten within an inch of his life at the instigation of local police (they basically told him it was coming, but he had no place to go) and left for dead - 24 hours later he was taken to the local hospital, patched up, but they were so poorly equipped they really couldn’t do anything for him, so they discharged him. He fell into critical condition (ruptured kidney and internal bleeding) and was taken to one of Kampala’s leading hospitals, but no doctor will see him unless he pays cash - in advance! Not even a painkiller.</p>
<p>In the middle of this, the Uganda Parliament – with massive bribes from a bunch of American fundamentalist churches - has now passed a new law that provides for a life sentence for a second homosexual “offense”. There is also a potential death penalty for the “incorrigible”. I keep imagining what it would be like if I had a child who, by some stretch of fortune, happened to have to live in this environment. </p>
<p>So I think the best thing I can do right now is make it possible for my friend to live. It’s only a gesture - but there are serious lives at stake.</p>