Editor:

I know there are many families during this difficult financial time who have had the feeling that this hardship will never end. We have a daughter with significant ongoing medical issues whom The Press has been wonderful in helping us get the word out to the community about, and the community has stepped up and been a wonderful support for us during a very hard emotional and financial season in her life.

This past year we have now been struggling with the fact that our youngest daughter is having some of the same issues our oldest daughter struggles with. That in itself was enough to rock our world. Then at the end of August, my husband, our only source of income due to the huge amount of medical appointment and hospital stays I am required to manage for our daughters, was in the backyard and while doing some yard work, broke his back. It was literally the “straw that broke his back.”

After many years of hard manual labor, his back gave out and after major surgery in September, he is now trying to get back on his feet. The prognosis is unknown at this time. He is walking but with very limited mobility and stamina. This story goes on, but it is not the reason for my letter.

I say all this to give you an insight as to why we have been touched so very deeply by the amazing love and support we have received from a Secret Santa. The Thursday before Christmas we received a knock at our front door, and the principal from Brentwood Elementary School was there with literally a truckload of gifts for our family. We had told our three young girls that we were going to have a “home-made Christmas” this year, and we had not purchased any gifts for our girls.

While we deeply believe that the reason for Christmas is to celebrate the birth of our Savior, we do like to celebrate the magic of the joy of gift-giving as well. Since the injury to my husband happened at home, he is not eligible for any worker’s compensation or disability, so we are doing like so many of you and trying to make things stretch to the breaking point. The Secret Santa that blessed our home this year goes beyond the ability of us to say thank you!

The gifts were so very thoughtful and exactly what each girl was hoping for – even some things I didn’t know they wanted. They told us, “This is exactly what I was secretly wishing for.” Then as an extra blessing, there were even gifts for my husband, me and even our family dog, Pebbles. We have been blessed beyond our wildest dreams.

We wanted to say thank-you to the Secret Santa out there who thought of our family with such care, detail, kindness and incredible generosity. We are looking forward to the day we will be able to pay forward all the kindness that has blessed our home, but for now we are here with humble, grateful hearts and wanted to let our community know that you have blessed us and brought huge joy to our home.

Thank you so much!

The Stone family,

Denny, Debi, Sydney, Sammy and Sierra