Our season to give and receive
This time of year we hear so many heartwarming and heartbreaking stories of people in need, and especially in these days of historic unemployment. We also hear of so many people and organizations who go the extra mile to bring Christmas joy to others. It's one of the things I love most about our communities.
In 1985 a single mother of three had returned home to Idaho after leaving an abusive marriage, hoping to start a new life. Their 10-year-old car was paid for and only required liability insurance. The rent on their four-plex apartment was $325 a month and the mother worked swing shift as a desk clerk, earning $4.50 per hour. The two oldest children were teenagers and took responsibility for themselves and their younger sister while their mother was at work. There were few extras but the family was dressed in clean, warm clothes with a roof over their heads, an abundance of love and hope for better times to come.They weren't hungry, they weren't homeless and they weren't alone. But their under $10,000 a year annual income for a family of four was poverty level. A few days before Christmas, a basket of food and small gifts appeared on the doorstep. The mother at first was embarrassed that despite her best efforts someone out there knew their financial situation was dark. Pride brought resentment for the "handout," but the children thought it was wonderful that someone was thinking of them. It was a thoughtful gesture at a bleak time.
The stranger who reached out to me and my daughters back then knew the meaning of Christmas, even as I'd lost sight of it in the struggle to provide for my family. We never knew if the basket filled with food and love came from the Needy Family Fund, a church or a neighbor, but it didn't matter then nor does it now. What's important is to reach out to others, not to judge the reasons for their situation. Don't give out of guilt or pity, but from the place in your heart that holds compassion for your fellow man.In the two-plus decades since that uncertain time for me and my daughters, I've been blessed ten-fold. Better times did indeed arrive and I've been able to pay it forward, as have my now-grown daughters. To everything there is a season; be this our season to give or to receive, we, too, are blessed.
***Boy Scout Troop 3 of Coeur d'Alene is celebrating its 20th year of selling Christmas trees. Their lot is next to Michael's, off Government Way. If you haven't found your perfect tree yet, this is a great way to support the troop's biggest fundraiser of the year through Dec. 18. American Legion Post 143 has beautiful trees, too, at their post tree lot on Poleline and Syringa in Post Falls.
***Happy Birthday today to Dean Opsal, CJ Deacon, Rhonda Newton and Randy Duncan, who's turning the big 6-0! Tomorrow Tammy Schneider, Kelly Ferguson and Becky McIntire Bufeuillet will celebrate. On Friday Tammie Peacock, Cecilia Fehling, Cheri Banta and Cindy Jarnagin are the birthday girls. Shannon Clark, Richard Carlson, Dick Wandrocke (78!) and Donna Cushman (80!) will blow out their birthday candles on Saturday. Lots of Sunday birthdays including Christina Petit, Jennifer Keefe, Katrina Mayer, Kym Hamby, Shawn Gunn and Aleta English (60!). I bet 12/12 is a great day for Dr. Mary Sanderson, who's turning 60 and John Austin, Monte Miller, Mark Orlowski and Geoff Scott. On Tuesday Brian Golly and Denise Higgs mark another year. *note: so far in the past month all of those who are celebrating their 60th birthdays are my much older classmates from CHS Class of '70. :)
***Kerri Rankin Thoreson is a member of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and the former publisher of the Post Falls Tribune. She was voted Best Local Writer for 2011 by the readers of the North Idaho Business Journal. Main Street appears every Wednesday in The Press and Kerri is on the air Mondays and Wednesdays on 1080 ESPN AM (KVNI). She can be reached at [email protected]