A Simple Gift Brings a Wonderful Close to This Year’s Ingles Toy Store and the Saint Nicholas Project With a Story We Will Never Forget
Christmas seems to be a time for miracles. And whether you believe in them or you don’t, there is little doubt that you will see something special in the story I am about to tell. Miracle or not, it is a story that none of us at Eblen Charities will ever forget.
The strange thing about this particular story is that never in our nearly twenty years of serving our community have we had a guitar donated to us just out of the blue.
We have had them donated to us for our Grove Park Inn Night of the Legends Auction, but never had one given to us as the one that was dropped off in our office last Wednesday.
About 4:30 in the afternoon an older gentleman with a white beard, wearing overalls, a denim jacket, and a baseball cap emblazoned with a message saluting American Veterans walked into the Waddell Client Service Center at Westgate carrying a guitar case.
I introduced myself and he handed me the case and said “I know you all do a lot of good here. I thought that you might like to have this guitar. I have had it stored for years and I have never played it. I thought maybe that you might be able to find a good home for it.”
I told him that we didn’t have anyone in mind, but that we hadn’t had anything donated to us that we didn’t have someone contact us in need of. I assured him that we would find his guitar a good home and how much we appreciated him thinking of us and for his kind words. As he was leaving he turned back and said “That guitar means a lot to me, it was given to me by a friend of mine years ago. He and I served in Vietnam together, and he didn’t make it back. I’ve never played it, in fact it still has the original tags on it. Thank you again for helping me find the right place for it.” And with that he was gone. So this still brand new guitar from the early 1970s had found a home, at least temporarily in our office.
The next day around 10:00 in the morning a young single mother was sitting in our office seeking help with her electric bill. As she sat in staff member Elizabeth Robinson’s office, the weight of her circumstances came crashing down on her shoulders. She couldn’t hold back her tears as she explained that not only was her power about to be shut off, she had to pawn her 13 year-old daughter’s only Christmas present.
She had worked cleaning houses in order to get her daughter the one gift she wanted that would make her Christmas memorable, a one bright spot in a most difficult year. She had bought it in October, but with less work available to her, she had to pawn it to pay her water bill.
Elizabeth told her about the Ingles Christmas Store and told her there may be some things there that her daughter may like for Christmas. As they walked to the toy store Elizabeth asked her out of curiosity what the present was. “It was a guitar,” the mother answered. “My daughter loves music and has wanted a guitar for some time. This past summer she even bought a wall mount for a guitar at a yard sale and has it on her bedroom wall. She put it there in hopes of getting a guitar one day. She doesn’t know that I had one for her, and I’m glad she didn’t because now I don’t.”
After signing her in at the Ingles Christmas Store, Elizabeth went back to the office to see if the guitar that the kind gentleman had given us just a few short hours before was still there. We were still out collecting toys when she called and said “Please tell me that this guitar isn’t promised for anyone.” I told her that it wasn’t and that I really hadn’t had time to think about it since we received it. She told me the story and it was evident to everyone in the Eblen Charities office why that guitar found its way to us.
Going back to the Ingles Toy Store, she asked the young mother if she would come back to the office with her for a moment to make sure she had all her correct information. Walking back into the office the mother saw the guitar and burst into tears. “How did you do this?” she asked.
I am not at all sure that how it all came about matters much or not. I only know that it did. We had never met the gentleman with the overalls and white beard who had served his country honorably and lost his best friend in Southeast Asia more than four decades ago. But it was through his gift, he brightened not only the Christmas Season but the lives of this wonderful mother and daughter. (and all of us as well). And in this hectic whirlwind Christmas Season at Eblen Charities, he gave us the greatest gift of all; the reminder and evidence of what one simple act of kindness can do in touching the lives of so many.
Thank you all for the wonderful year at the Ingles Toy Store and the Saint Nicholas Project. And for one last time in this memorable season…Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.
