Years ago
when my husband Charles was on dialysis and having so many health-related,
life-threatening medical complications, it seemed that we careened along from
crisis to crisis. One of those years he
was hospitalized as an in-patient at St. Joseph Hospital following an emergency surgery and was not
going to be discharged until sometime after Thanksgiving.
I arrived
home from the hospital late one night just a couple of days before Thanksgiving
and there was a phone message from a stranger on our answering machine (we
didn’t have voicemail or Caller ID then).
The young woman and her siblings wanted to come over – right then. She insisted it was urgent and would only
take a few minutes. She wanted me to call back as soon as I arrived home, no
matter what time it was. I was both exhausted and hesitant, but she sounded so
sweet and upbeat, I returned her call.
She
explained that their family anonymously adopts a family each year for
Thanksgiving. She seemed to know that Charles was hospitalized and we were
having a difficult time. She said they
could be at our apartment in a matter of minutes and indeed they were. It was four or five young adults who were all
brothers and sisters; this tradition of theirs is something they had grown up
doing.
They arrived
in several vehicles and formed a bucket brigade to haul in bag after bag, and
box after box of every type of grocery item anyone could ever imagine including
a turkey to roast and all of the trimmings to go with it.
Additionally,
they presented me with a wreath for our door as an expression of hope and
encouragement that things would get better.
It was so humbling and overwhelming to be on the receiving end of so
much love and generosity, I will never forget it.
They filled
our refrigerator, freezer, and pantry so full we didn’t need to buy groceries
for months afterward.
When
Charles was able to come home from the hospital the week after Thanksgiving, we
had one of the most memorable Thanksgiving celebrations ever.
We vowed
then that in the years ahead when we were able to do so, we would adopt their
family’s tradition as our own and bestow those blessings on another family
anonymously as they had done for us.
We will
never forget Thanksgiving from that year.
Please know that whether you give a jar of peanut butter to a food bank
or a whole shopping cart full of groceries to a family in need, they will
always remember it and be grateful that you cared. Those needs exist daily, not just during the holidays and 'season of giving.'
