Last year around this time, my 20-year-old daughter got to see the ultimate Christmas spirit in action.
Up until October of this year, she was a "comp peer" for a 13-year-old girl I'll call Becky through the Mildred Berry Program in Rockford. It works much like a Big Brothers/Big Sisters program.
To my daughter, it meant giving up half of her Saturday or Sunday every week or every other week to go do something with this little girl. They went to a craft show, they went to the movies, visited the library, etc. Sometimes they came back to the house, where Becky would play on the computer or with our puppy or watch DVDs with my daughter.
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For Becky's birthday last December, my daughter took her to IHOP for breakfast. As my daughter has never met a stranger, she started chatting with an older gentleman sitting close by who had overheard my daughter and Becky talking. She explained the program to him and the fact that it was Becky's birthday.
As he got up to leave, he told them Merry Christmas and walked to the front of the restaurant to pay his check.
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A few minutes later, when my daughter asked the waitress to bring their check, she was extremely surprised to hear the mysterious gentleman they'd been talking with had very graciously picked up their check.
Then their benefactor came back to their table to tell Becky to have a happy birthday. What happened next was truly a Christmas miracle: He smiled, opened his wallet and gave Becky a crisp $100 bill to spend for her birthday or for Christmas.
It was more money than Becky had ever seen at one time. She was in tears, my daughter was in tears, even the waitress who had overheard the entire exchange was in tears. A complete stranger had not only just paid for their breakfast but he gave this disadvantaged little girl $100.
Those two girls are never, ever going to forget what happened that cold December morning and neither will I. The Christmas spirit is alive and well, everyone.
PS: They finally did get him to tell them his name before he left. They wanted to send him a thank you card. Being the Internet sleuth that I am (she said modestly), I did a Google search to find his address and found there was no one by that name in Rockford or the surrounding areas.
Somehow, I was not surprised.
