Being Santa

After being away for Christmas in the sunshine the last two years it was back to helping the charity Stand International again this year.

Sadly the number of people needing help has increased again this year and certainly well up from when I was last involved 3 years ago.  

We delivered a Christmas meal in a box (soup, turkey, and cheesecake) with a small gift plus a packet of things like Quality Street or Cadbury Roses sweets.    In most cases we just hand it to them at the doorstep but in some cases there is a need to go inside and unpack, point out the heating instructions, and put the cheesecake in their fridge. 

In the very first one I stayed a bit longer, maybe 15 or 20 minutes.  I won't say the lady's age although she did tell me, but she looked younger than her years.   A delightful lady, she hadn't been out of the house for almost 2 years.  (Her latest affliction is gout).   A while back she had someone do some research for her and discovered her only brother (who lived in U.S.A) had died 6 years ago.  Explained why she hadn't heard from him for so long.

Carers stop by briefly each day, but not today.   She has a 'wee car' which she is very fond of but hasn't driven for many years and won't drive again.  It gets taken away for a service each year and has had 3 replacement batteries.  Its now 20 years old.  Costs a lot of money to insure it and tax it each year.

When I was leaving she said my visit was the best Christmas present she had had for a long time.  That's going to stay with me for a while.