When our girls were little, 4 and 6 years old, we were shopping in a mega store at Christmas. The lines were long and my Mom had joined us for the shopping. We had finally filled the cart and headed to the front of the store. We found a great line to check out and Mom and I began to talk about the holiday. There was an elderly gentleman with his cart in front of us and he was trying to get the attention of my little girls. We had taught them not to talk to strangers and they were practicing what we had taught them. The line wasn’t moving very quickly and the man kept trying to talk to the girls. Finally the man took two nickels out of his pocket and gave each of the girls a nickel. The girls said thank you and moved behind Mom and Grandma. Mom and I started talking to him a little and he mentioned he had had some heart problems and who his doctor was in town. My mother noticed that the man had chosen a long line yet had only two TV dinners in his cart. He could easily have gone through the express lines at the store. Mom pointed out his cart as he was checking out and paying for his two TV dinners. She told me he really just needed some human contact and she wished there was something she could do.
My Mom had decided to go visit my sister in Atlanta for the Holidays and my husbands folks were headed out of town as well so that left Mike, our girls and I for Christmas Day. We were looking for something to do that would be different that year since we wouldn’t be visiting family on Christmas. We decided to head to the Grand Plaza Hotel in Grand Rapids for Christmas and made reservations to have dinner in one of the most unbelievable places in our area. We were lavishing ourselves for the holiday and were excited yet something just didn’t feel right. I kept remembering the man in the line at the store who just needed human contact.
I called the doctor’s office that he said he went to and spoke to the front desk. I said I had an unusual request but hoped they could help me. I told them about our encounter with the man in the line at the store. I told them about his two TV dinners and how he blessed my girls with the coins. I asked if there was any way to identify him. The first person said she didn’t know but she would ask the nurse to call me. A while later the nurse called and I told her my experience in the store. While speaking to her I remembered one fact about the man and told her about this unusual (to me) feature of the man. She knew immediately who he was. She said he didn’t have family. I told her we wanted to bless him with some gifts for the holiday. She was wonderful and gave me not only his name but his address as well.
We took the girls, bought some gifts and a fruit basket and took our girls to the man’s home. He was excited to have someone stop by on Christmas because he had no family. We were invited into his home. I was shocked to see how little he had. Remember, we lived in Michigan and Christmas means snow. This gentleman was living in his living room and dining room. He had his bed in the dining room. The living room held a small upholstered rocker, a TV tray and a TV on a small side table. There were 2 folding chairs up against the wall, which we used to sit and talk to him. The doors to the bedroom and also the kitchen were kept closed because he didn’t want to pay to heat them. He was really a man in need and we had come to bless him. That was the beginning of our tradition of blessing someone special that our girls chose every year.
One of years the girls chose to bless “Manny,” the maintenance guy at the elementary school they were attending in Tampa. We wrote a letter to him telling everything our girls told us that made him the “blessed person” that year and gave him a gift. The biggest reason he was who they picked was because a teacher would ask him to do or fix something and his answer was always “I will get right on that” and then he did. They said he always had a smile on his face. About 10 years later Mike was substitute teaching at the school and he remembered Mike when he saw him. He took him to his office and showed him how the letter had been framed and placed on his wall. He wanted to always remember that his daily actions influence people.
During this Christmas season can you find someone and bless them just because they do nice things or smile or whatever it is that will make you pick that person? Look around, it could it be a person in a store, a neighbor or a person that you work with that is always positive. Tell them why you are giving them a gift. I guarantee the note you write will be more important to them than the gift. I took a gift down to someone who worked at the “HELP” desk at Moffitt one year. I wrote a note telling her how helpful she had always been when I had to phone the “HELP” desk for IT help. I already have my person picked out for this year. Give some thought to whom you might choose. I would love to hear about it so drop me a note, please.
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