Angel helped frantic couple: Gift at very bottom of box
Published: October 30, 2006
Bill Ryan could tell this was an emergency.
The man and woman sprinting toward him, up the steps of the Yonge Street Mission, were flailing their arms and trying to catch his attention. Weary from a week of seemingly endless days at the centre, Ryan had the door key in his hand. After all, it was Christmas Eve and he wanted to get home to his own family.
“They were that close to missing us,” said Ryan, a director at the mission. “They had no money and no other place to turn for help.”
Panting, the couple, both around 35, threw themselves at his mercy. “`Please,’” Ryan recalls the woman begging, “`I have the chance to visit with my daughter tomorrow. Is there something you can give me so I don’t show up emptyhanded?’”
Losing her 9-year-old child to the Children’s Aid Society two years earlier was hard enough, she said. The prospect of letting down her baby girl on Christmas Day was heartbreaking.
The woman had been granted this rare visit mere hours earlier and spent the morning running between donation centres, which were all shutting down before Dec. 25, to find a present. Ryan didn’t know why the CAS took the woman’s child. All he knew was she was desperate.
“What sort of gift would you like?” he asked. A Barbie doll, she replied, hoping someone’s generosity would save her day.
Ryan headed for a stash of gifts packed neatly in the basement after the holiday rush. He tore into the first box: colouring books. The second: stuffed animals. The third: toy trucks. And, the fourth: “God always makes you wait until the end,” he said. “It was at the very bottom of the box.”
As he tugged at the pink cardboard, Ryan was amazed to see the shimmering doll inside. It had silvery wings. Tucking it behind his back before walking upstairs, he smiled.
“There must be an angel looking out for you,” he told the couple as he revealed the gift.
They took one look at the doll and both burst into tears. “`You don’t understand,’” the man said. “`I had a daughter who died. Her name was Angel.’”
Recalling the story, Ryan says he’s reminded of the couple each holiday season and how they were touched by the generosity of a stranger’s donation.
“People have no idea what impact they have on a family when they give,” he said, praising the Toronto Star Santa Claus Fund, which puts presents in the hands of more than 45,000 children each year.
The Yonge Street Mission has been helping the fund reach families in need for several years.
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