On a beautiful Saturday afternoon in early 2019 a mother and her two sons returned home after running some errands.
The 7-year-old twins were excited about taking an afternoon hike with their father, but before they could race into the kitchen to see if he was ready, they were abruptly ordered to turn around and wait outside.
“Our Dad died suddenly, shockingly, of a massive heart attack,” the children’s mother wrote in a letter to Globe Santa. “We had no idea he had a bad heart.”
Her husband had been making lunch for the family when he was stricken. Pea soup still simmered on the stove.
But he was gone.
“Their father was an amazing artist and musician, but they got to know [him] very little,” reads the letter.
Since his death, she’s done her best to provide for the family and pull her sons up whenever they need a lift. Needless to say, she’s done a lot of lifting.
It’s approaching three years since that awful day, but the pain is still sharp.
“Maybe the hardest part was never seeing them have another pillow fight with their Dad,” she wrote. “They loved those pillow fights.”
To make matters worse, she has serious health issues, and the family is barely staying afloat on the disability insurance payments she receives.
Without help, she’s afraid her sons face the prospect of a disappointing holiday.
“Thank you for thinking of my boys,” she wrote. “They are so sweet.”
This letter is among the many thousands of requests for assistance received this year by Globe Santa.
Throughout Greater Boston, mothers, fathers, grandparents and other guardians are asking Globe Santa to help make their children’s holiday season merrier.
And thanks to your generous support, Globe Santa will be there for each and every one of them.
For 66 years, Globe Santa, a program of the Boston Globe Foundation, has delivered gifts to children for the holidays.
Every dollar donated is used to support the Globe Santa campaign, which last year raised more than $1.7 million and helped put smiles on the faces of more than 30,000 children.
Please consider supporting Globe Santa by mail, phone or online at globesanta.org.
Christopher Tangney can be reached at ctangney22@hotmail.com.