Christmas Memories

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Category: Lifestyle/People
Published: Saturday, 26 January 2013 23:43

This article originally published in West Orlando News Online.

I grew up in a large family – eight people. My parents had six children. There is a ten year span between my oldest brother and my youngest. As a matter of fact, that ten year span is the measure that I use to calculate how old my siblings are. I know that my youngest brother is three years younger than me and my oldest brother is seven years older, so I just guess the others.

The family moved once when my oldest brother was a baby and after that stayed secure in the same house until we all grew up, graduated from college and moved out. There was a lot of fighting, a lot of love, plenty of growth and plenty of sharing as we moved through those decades of living as a family together. We shared Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Mother’s Day over twenty times together. We cried for a brother when he scraped a knee and cheered for my sister when she finally passed her driving test. The memories of growing up with family should make you smile.

 I read a story about the family of Desiree Andre. Ms. Andre was killed in a car accident just two weeks before Christmas and left her 10 children alone without a parent. The newspaper story said that Ms. Andre would work two or three jobs in order to keep her family together. She knew how important that was. A counselor said that this is one of the worst tragedies that he has seen in 25 years.

The grandmother plans to take all ten children into her home, but first she’ll need to find a larger living space and of course she’ll need some help. The grandmother’s cost for feeding those extra mouths will be prohibitive on her limited income. Then there is the cost of memories.

 Right now the Christmas memory for those 10 children is that their mother died during the happiest time of the year. Their memory now is one of confusion and one of being alone. For the moment they can hug each other, but they don’t know about tomorrow. Today they have their grandmother who wants to help, but the community needs to help her too. These ten children for now, will have to depend on the community, they have to depend on us.

 Sometimes we get caught up in our personal lives and don’t have time to think about others. Remember, this is truly the time of year to think about what we can do to help someone less fortunate. It is time to help someone or some family who have had a stroke of bad luck. It is time to help support some children in our own community whose lives right now are in shambles on the eve of Christmas.

 There is an opportunity to help. This opportunity is supported by an organization we can trust.

 Rosalind Johnson, Executive Director of, ‘Big Sis, Inc’ is asking that 10 people donate a minimum of $25 to help them provide gifts for the 5 older children. Rosalind Johnson will match that $250 donation. Ms. Johnson often puts her own money into helping families and she has been providing this type of help for the community for years.

 They have toys on hand for the younger children but are also trying to provide for the teenagers as well. Please make a tax deductible donation to assist Big Sis, Inc. with this effort.

Obviously we can’t bring back the children’s mom, but we can lessen the pain. Maybe with our help, the Christmas Season memories could become a joyous time again for these children. For memories sake, please help.

 You can donate here: http://www.bigsis.org/donate.html

 Thanks, we can do this.