Story time. I had a sick kid who spent a lot of time in the NICU, in cardiologists offices, and in the ER. I also went into kidney failure shortly after giving birth and began growing weird lumps in places lumps shouldn’t be. At the end of the first two years we had mortgage style medical debt. It was also the perfect opportunity for the economy to freefall and we became a single income household for an uncomfortable period of time.
We may have been eating ramen and on-cor meals every night but I had far too much pride to ask for help.
That Christmas all of our holiday shopping was done at The Dollar Tree. The girls were given $10 to buy things for their favorite people and we made crafts to fill in the gaps. I didn’t want to steal their joy even though I wasn’t sure if I’d have enough gas to get to work the next week. To them ten dollars was $100… to me it was figuring out how to make the grocery budget stretch a little extra.
As we were about to checkout my oldest daughter walked up to me and handed me a stack of gift cards. Confused and concerned she may have pickpocketed someone (she could be shifty at that age) I asked her to tell me where she got them. She pointed to a lady fleeing out of the store and said “she told me to give these to you after she left. She asked me if you were a good mom. I told her you were and she gave me the whole pile”. Needless to say I spent the better part of the next thirty minutes ugly crying in the middle of the dollar store.
The cashier told me she would come in every few days during December and look for a family who seemed like they could use it. There was $300 in gift cards and that was just enough to get some bills caught up with a little extra to spoil the kids.
Be someone’s dollar tree lady and shame on anyone who tries to smother your compassion.