The irony alone sickens Carole but at 79 she can’t survive another new year of rent increases and still hope to feed herself. She’s first on the list for a reduced rent program but won’t be next without a neighbor dying and leaving a program vacancy. Not much of a merry Christmas ahead, to top it off, she’s caught a nasty cold from trying to save on her heating bill.
But it’s Christmas, Carole.
We gave her a long warm winter coat someone donated, a gift card for food, her gas bill paid, and a little something special for under a tree she doesn’t have. And what she doesn’t know is a my friend Joanne has included her on a special list of 10 we prepared, and will be surprising her with a home delivered Christmas eve meal and a Christmas basket of essentials she doesn’t know I know she needs. Her remaining family is far away in New England but she won’t be cold, hungry or alone this Christmas listening for the bells of an ambulance on arrival to ring in the savior of her new year. The hope of Christmas is all year long at my job. We gift people like Carole to keep them housed and fed with the heat on because of your gifts. Troubles and worries don’t disappear during the holidays but we help them take a brief hiatus for something better. You helped bring joy to her world, and that, my friend, is a Christmas, Carole.