On the 21st of December, we delivered two Christmas Jars. When I say “we” that means my dog and I!
It was early in the morning, about 6:30am when set the first jar at the door of a friend in Springville that is supporting his wife and two young daughters under 18 months old. He works full time, while attending school full time. Felt good to ‘knock’ on his door and run.
The last jar was for a friend in Spanish Fork. She is a single mom raising two teenage daughters. At the end of November, one of her daughters got Covid-19 and had to quarantine at home. The mom cleans homes for a living and continued to clean in the first part of Dec. Then, both she and her eldest daughter got sick and also tested positive for Covid-19.
I took them dinner around the 10th of December and the mom was so sick she couldn’t get off the couch. I’d never been around someone with Covid, however, I’ve read lots about others who went downhill quickly, before being admitted to the hospital, then pass away.
She continue to feel better and her daughters had recovered. Only then, my friend discovered a pain in her stomach area. She was diagnosed with ‘gall stones’ and required surgery to remove. She doesn’t have health insurance, and without the ability to clean homes, there was no income for the family.
As my dog watched, I took the jar in one hand, and a package of cookies in the other. As I left the street and started up the driveway, the jar pulled away from the lid, and crashed on the sidewalk in a thousand pieces, currency, coins going everywhere. The lid was still in my hand! Moral, use screw on lids and hold the bottom of the jar!
It was just starting to get light, I went to my car and got a grocery sack to gather the money, amidst the broken glass of the jar. The paper with “Christmas Jar” was in the middle to the pile with glass stuck to the tape. As I gathered the large pieces of glass from the bottle, I cut my fingers and blood began to appear on my left hand. Because it was only about 26 degrees F, the coins that landed on the ice on the sidewalk immediately froze in the ice! I had lots of quarters and dollar coins that were frozen on the sidewalk! I gathered the money for about 15 minutes, left the package of cookies at the foot of the door, then left as I was now running late for work.
The next morning, I carefully put the money into a new jar, cut off the broken glass from “the Christmas Jar” tag and re-taped on the jar. Making sure I only put coins/currency in the new jar without glass, I finally had the new jar ready for delivery. This time, I had a screw on lid and I walked the jar up to the house –holding the bottom of the jar. As I walked past the area on the sidewalk where I’d dropped the jar the day before, there were coins all over the sidewalk, frozen in the ice. I chuckled as I placed the new jar at the bottom of their door.
It felt great to be of service to two families that I really know were in need. I’ve got to get two new jars for 2022 to fill for delivery!