The spirit of giving

Christmas is brighter for some area senior citizens, thanks to volunteers bearing gifts

Pat Reidy holds a gift bag presented to her by Mark Aloway, a volunteer with Home Instead.
Pat Reidy holds a gift bag presented to her by Mark Aloway, a volunteer with Home Instead.

— Pat Reidy's face lit up when she opened her front door - adorned with a festive Christmas wreath - and saw the middle-aged man standing there.

"Merry Christmas," he said, presenting her with a small gift bag.

Mark Aloway, a volunteer with Home Instead, introduced himself, and the recently widowed Reidy invited her guest to come inside. They chatted, and then Reidy placed her bag under a small, neatly trimmed Christmas tree.

"I'll open it on Christmas Day," she said.

On a table to the right of the tree is a portrait of Reidy and her husband, Rudy, who died last month.

The petite woman is one of about 290 senior citizens who were paid a visit by gift-bearing members of Home Instead Senior Care. The international organization is a nonmedical provider for in-home care and companionship for the elderly. Each Christmas, Home Instead places trees with tags bearing the names of senior citizens in area businesses.

Those who want to participate in the program - similar to the Salvation Army's Angel Trees for children - draw names from the tree and buy gifts for that person. Once the gifts are collected, volunteers, some of them school-age children, sort and distribute the gifts shortly before Christmas.

Almost all of the recipients are in nursing homes, assistedliving facilities or apartment buildings designed for the elderly. Many have recently lost spouses or have no surviving family members.

For them, Christmas can be an empty and lonely time.

Because of this and other similar programs, Reidy and others will awaken Christmas morning with gifts under their trees and feel a little less alone.

Style, Pages 33, 38 on 12/25/2007

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