Monday, December 06, 2004

Grief-filled Christmas

Marianne Siroka walked into my classroom, just in time to catch me starting to doze off in front of my computer screen, as I was waiting for the old dinosaur to download a PDF.

She wanted to tell us about a collection the faculty was taking up for one student's family.

Mike is one of the 10th grade boys in my Art 1 class. A tall, quiet, red-head, he mostly keeps to himself.
We knew that his dad had been very ill for quite some time. Hospitalized.
Today, Marianne spoke with Mike's mom. She informed us that the father's condition had deteriorated considerably, he might not live until Christmas. They had just lost their home to bank foreclosure, and were to be moving this week to a nearby apartment. If matters couldn't be worse, the dad's truck broke down, and they had no money to fix it. This was the only vehicle in the family.
Mom, of course, is concerned about the kids and the Christmas holiday. No home, no husband, no car, no money.

We know that this family will be in need of more than we can ever hope to collect. We will try to get them in touch with all of the social service programs that are available. In the meantime, perhaps we can do our part to make a little bit of Christmas for them on what is sure to be a greif-filled holiday.