What It's All About

You come across a good person every so often in your life.  Yesterday I came across a good one...a really, really good one.  Miss Linda.  I had met her once before and she seemed like a very nice woman.  She works with TOH, she is a grandmother, and she is sweet...what I had considered to be 'grandmother sweet.'  Until yesterday.
On that first day that we met (back in September), she invited the girls and me to a Christmas gift exchange.  She described it as a fun day for the girls to get dressed up and exchange gifts with other little girls their age.  So, off we went in our fancy dresses with our gifts in hand to our gift exchange luncheon.  Oh, how I was in for the surprise of my life.
We met at a local restaurant.  A very nice restaurant.  She had an entire room reserved.  The staff was ready and eager for us to arrive.  It was Christmas morning and I had no idea. 
There were a mix of children from ages two through ten.  They came from all backgrounds...all walks of life...all types of lifestyles.  They got along like they had been friends since they were born.  They laughed, they played, they shared.  There was no 'mine' or 'yours', no whining or crying, no fighting or pouting. 
Miss Linda started the girls off with lunch (which they ordered themselves and sat at their very own table--for 17!)...then they played games, had homemade desserts and then the gift-giving extravaganza began.  Not only did the girls exchange the gifts they had brought for each other, but Miss Linda had a 4-foot stocking full of individual gifts for each girl, toys for each girl, and a family gift for each girl...by the end of everything, there were tears from many...restaurant staff included.
It was unlike anything that I have ever seen before in my life.  Miss Linda is someone that I will forever strive to be.  She works hard.  Three jobs hard, to be exact.  She works for months to prepare for this every year.  She does this out of the pure goodness in her heart and would not accept anything in return.  When I think of those shows on television like Extreme Home Makeover and You Deserve It, I immediately think of her.  She deserves every bit of goodness in the world.  The amount of joy and happiness in the eyes of those little girls was something that I will never ever forget and it is something that I hope to be able to provide someday. 
As much as we all love receiving gifts around the holidays, nothing is as great as what Miss Linda did for these girls.