An Island Christmas Story

I am overwhelmed today by the generosity of my community. It's a tiny place that puts together mammoth Christmas hampers each year for everyone who asks, and many who don't. Last year I didn't ask for one and a hamper and box of toys mysteriously turned up on my doorstep. This year, I again refrained from putting my name on the list and still got a call telling me to come and get one. I interpret none of this as patronizing or intrusive - just unparalleled thoughtfulness and generosity targeted particularly at families and single mothers.

Some sixty huge Rubbermaid laundry baskets were stuffed this morning at the community hall with ground organic coffee, handmade soap, canned tuna and salmon, fresh walnuts in the shell, pounds of butter, loaves of bread, five pound bags of flour and brown and white sugar, pure juices, fresh vegetables, tea and, of course, turkey. And that was only the start. I almost collapsed at the bounteousness. Each recipient must have got at least $200 worth of food; families with children also got boxes of brand new wrapped toys. Some was donated by islanders, some by local people who made the products themselves (soap, coffee), some came from the Salvation Army, some from the local grocery store.

The other thing that amazed me was the age of some of the people doing all the lifting and lugging and carrying and sorting of the huge amounts of food that went into the baskets. A few of them had to be eighty years old. As well, there was our local doctor, a woman who meets you at the clinic if your kid is crying with an earache at 10 pm, goes out on ambulance calls in the middle of the night, and wakes up the ferry guys if you have to go to the hospital after hours. At one point she was on her hands and knees in front of a basket for a vegan family making sure that they got enough of the right kind of stuff and redistributing to others what they wouldn't use.

And I almost forgot, every year, an anonymous person on this island donates a couple thousand dollars so that every elementary school child receives fifty dollars at Christmas time. I've never before heard of anything like that.

I can only guess at what we all did to deserve this. Probably just had the good luck to land in a community that has the time and the inclination to care. I will never forget it and every single person or organization involved deserves praise. I know there was generosity in the city I left behind to come here but it was too big a place for me to witness it in such a personal way. I am certainly grateful to have witnessed it here and to feel that, at least in this little corner of the world, no one is forgotten.