socal78
Well-known member
I am getting an early start this year. Trying to strategize how I can Adopt a Family without them knowing. #SecretSanta
Check this out. There's this lady I've gotten to know the past couple months. She works where I shop. Around 30 years old. A single mom to a 4 year old son. She came here from the Philippines about 5 years ago. She married an American Filipino guy. Soon after moving here, leaving all of her family behind and most of his, they found out she was pregnant. Two weeks later, this young man was just washing his car and suddenly dropped dead! I think he had an undiagnosed heart problem. This left her here in the U.S, recently a newlywed but now a widow, and newly pregnant at the same time -- with no family support, few if any friends... she had nobody and nothing. She only had one distant cousin here and her husband's parents who are very old and frail. They live in San Francisco and are bedridden with health issues. They can not offer her any help, of course.
She began making a 3 hour+ commute everyday, working 54+ hours a week, and had to leave her son with random people. She said it would be a new place everyday. She once dropped him off somewhere, sat him on the floor, and he looked up and asked, "Where am I now?" She moved in with a coworker. At one point, she was driving from her room in Alhambra to a friend's house in the inland empire to drop her son off then to O.C. for work. A 3 hour drive back to the I.E. where she would sleep over (not return all the way home), get up, and do it all again the next day. When her son was a baby, she fell asleep driving on the freeway. She would fall asleep holding him in the middle of the night. She has dropped him out of sheer exhaustion. She's just doing it all on her own. I asked if she has considered going back home to the Philippines where she has more support but she says no, it's better for her son here. :-\ At least now she lives in the same city as the store. That's a small improvement.
Despite this, she is the SWEETEST person. You would never guess she's been through so much and still is currently. I really want to help her. I was thinking of giving her a gift card early in December so she can use it on her son if she wants to. But getting it to her would present a problem. I don't want to give it to her directly. I don't want any credit for it. I also don't want her to feel awkward about accepting it. I thought about anonymously leaving it on her car but I'm afraid it might not make it into the right hands. I thought about giving it to her manager and he could say it's from the company, except I learned the store no longer gives Christmas bonuses to their employees. Not sure how this is going to work.
Check this out. There's this lady I've gotten to know the past couple months. She works where I shop. Around 30 years old. A single mom to a 4 year old son. She came here from the Philippines about 5 years ago. She married an American Filipino guy. Soon after moving here, leaving all of her family behind and most of his, they found out she was pregnant. Two weeks later, this young man was just washing his car and suddenly dropped dead! I think he had an undiagnosed heart problem. This left her here in the U.S, recently a newlywed but now a widow, and newly pregnant at the same time -- with no family support, few if any friends... she had nobody and nothing. She only had one distant cousin here and her husband's parents who are very old and frail. They live in San Francisco and are bedridden with health issues. They can not offer her any help, of course.
She began making a 3 hour+ commute everyday, working 54+ hours a week, and had to leave her son with random people. She said it would be a new place everyday. She once dropped him off somewhere, sat him on the floor, and he looked up and asked, "Where am I now?" She moved in with a coworker. At one point, she was driving from her room in Alhambra to a friend's house in the inland empire to drop her son off then to O.C. for work. A 3 hour drive back to the I.E. where she would sleep over (not return all the way home), get up, and do it all again the next day. When her son was a baby, she fell asleep driving on the freeway. She would fall asleep holding him in the middle of the night. She has dropped him out of sheer exhaustion. She's just doing it all on her own. I asked if she has considered going back home to the Philippines where she has more support but she says no, it's better for her son here. :-\ At least now she lives in the same city as the store. That's a small improvement.
Despite this, she is the SWEETEST person. You would never guess she's been through so much and still is currently. I really want to help her. I was thinking of giving her a gift card early in December so she can use it on her son if she wants to. But getting it to her would present a problem. I don't want to give it to her directly. I don't want any credit for it. I also don't want her to feel awkward about accepting it. I thought about anonymously leaving it on her car but I'm afraid it might not make it into the right hands. I thought about giving it to her manager and he could say it's from the company, except I learned the store no longer gives Christmas bonuses to their employees. Not sure how this is going to work.
I think that family had a "low financial I.Q.", though. In this new situation, this lady seems like she's more responsible. However, I realize when you give somebody a gift like this, you have to be prepared for absolutely anything. O_O I guess not everybody thinks like we do. *Praying*
