It’s another COVID holiday season and many people in our community will be spending it alone. Some of us will also have ample time to reflect on what’s really important: our health and doing our best to protect the health of those more vulnerable.
Kathy Kristiansen is 38 and has lived in Huntsville her whole life. She will probably be on her own this Christmas. With further COVID restrictions looming, she’s not sure she’ll be invited to spend Christmas with anyone else. Her father who does not live with her is away, and her mother died two years ago.
“This will be the second Christmas without her,” lamented Kristiansen who lives in District housing and has a disability yet manages to stay upbeat.
She’s thankful for community support, is an advocate for people with disabilities, and is very giving of the little she has. She makes necklaces and gives out candy to people she thinks deserve it because they help others, and sometimes she just does it randomly, too.
She agrees to meet me for a photo. “I made it,” she tells me, referring to a piece of beaded jewellery. “I brought you some candy, too,” she adds.
I accept, knowing her gifts come from the heart.
Kristiansen recently took to a Facebook page called Help Her Out – Huntsville and made a rather special request.
“I wish that someone would write me a heartfelt letter like my mother would of wrote to her daughter for Christmas,” she wrote. “If anyone has anytime I would [definitely]… appreciate a letter for Christmas. It’s not the same without my mom! Thanks!”
Judging from the response her post elicited, she will likely get a few letters and perhaps read them on Christmas morning with a hot cup of cocoa. One group member asked her for her address, which she posted in the group. Anyone inclined can also send her a message at [email protected].
So, if you have a little time this Christmas and want to do something nice for a perfect stranger, send her a letter. “I’d really like that,” she said.
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