Personally, I Now Truly Believe in Santa

Note: For the record, this reporter was raised as an Orthodox Jew. But living in a community that I consider family, I have taken in, participated in, and supported our Christmas holiday season fully.

I am explaining this because I now truly believe in Santa. Here’s my story:

A veteran who has been living in our community with his family for about 45 years is aging and physically not doing well because of his health conditions. He cannot walk upright, and a wheelchair is too hard to maneuver. The other day I went over to their house, and his adult daughter was on the phone with the VA trying to find out how to obtain a motorized scooter for her father. The total time of the phone call was over an hour. Most of it was spent listening to a recording saying how many callers were ahead of her.

Her phone call was not very productive. She was informed that the soonest she could speak to an occupational therapist was in March. When she got off the phone, we talked about other agencies that might be able to help. During that conversation, I suddenly thought of the Santa who comes up and supports our community along with many others in Siskiyou, Shasta, and Tehama counties (and probably many more). I did an article on him a year or so ago, and I remembered that he also does a lot for the veterans home in Redding and thought he might have connections.

So I texted him explaining the situation, and he immediately called me. He told me that a good friend of his is purchasing two scooters—one for his mother and one for his mother-in-law—and he will work it out with him to get a third one and bring it up here by Christmas.

No ifs, ands, or buts—he is just going to do this because he is Santa.

Being on speakerphone, everybody in the room heard this, and needless to say, the tears were flowing. I offered to try to get people to help pitch in, and he said I can if I want, but it’s no problem.