One of the duties of her job was to go to the post office every day and pick up the company mail. As November rolled into December, she noticed a Salvation Army Santa standing on the corner. Each day she saved her coins and dropped them in his bucket. He'd smile, wish her a Merry Christmas, and continue to ring his bell.
The second week of December came with a cold front. At night the temperature dropped below zero Fahrenheit and the daytime temperatures barely made it to fourteen. Santa stood in the frigid winds and continued to ring his bell.
"You must be freezing." She said to him, as she dropped her coins in his bucket.
"I'm so cold!" He shivered. "I can't feel the bell in my hands. And my feet? I don't know if they're there anymore."
The next day, she dropped her coins in the bucket and handed him several chemical hand and foot warmers. "Try these." She smiled at Santa. "We had them in our car in case of and emergency. I think a Santa freezing is an emergency. Don't you?"
Santa took her offering. "God bless you, Ma'am. I cannot thank you enough."
A week later, a new Santa stood ringing the bell. "What happened to the other Santa?" She asked.
"He paused his ringing to inform her, "I'm sorry to say, he's very sick today."
She dropped her coins in the bucket and walked away with a heavy heart. Her hand and foot warmers were not enough to prevent Santa from getting sick. She prayed for his health.
Later that day, a co-worker came into her office in tears. "I don't know what I'm going to do."
"What's wrong?" she asked.
"It's my ex-husband." Her co-worker wiped a tear from her eye and continued. "I don't have any money to buy my boys anything for Christmas. I called my ex-husband last night and asked if he was sending money for them. He told me that these were tough times. The boys will have suck it up. I'm not sending money. They'll get over it." She began to cry harder. "I don't know what to do. They're teenagers and will understand, but it breaks my heart that they won't have anything this year."
The lady hugged her co-worker. "I'm sure everything will work out. It's Christmas. Believe in miracles."
That evening, she sat with her husband and told him about her co-worker's situation. "Hun, I know we don't have much to help, but I'd like to get her a gift card from Walmart or something. Maybe fifty or a hundred dollars. We'll just get ourselves less this year. Last year we couldn't afford to buy anything for ourselves and still had a wonderful Christmas. It's the giving that counts."
She paused and looked at her husband. "I feel bad for those boys," she continued. "I want to send it to her anonymously. She'll never know where it came from. It will make her so happy."
Her husband saw the look in her eyes, and knew she wanted his blessing, but also that she was going to do it anyway. "Hun?"
"Yes?"
He smiled. "Give her the hundred. She needs it more than we do."
She reached up and held him. Warmth spread through his body. A glow like none other. He held her and realized there really is a Santa Claus; he'd married her.
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