A “Secret Santa” in the state of Idaho has teamed up with a local reporter to find families in need and help them out in time for Christmas, with the goal of giving away a million dollars as Christmas approaches. Recently, that “Secret Santa” did so by helping out a widowed mother of seven by paying for the funeral of her late husband.
Though the Santa is anonymous, the woman whom he helped is Courtney Fielding. Her husband, Kelly, was seemingly healthy but died in his sleep from a heart attack in October. That upended the family’s finances, as not only did the funeral cost a good bit, but the seven kids need to be educated and some are still in college and others are approaching their college years.
Courtney is now planning to return to the workforce to support her dependent children, but she is in a great amount of need as she tries to make ends meet while dealing with her grief and the entirely upended life of the family. So, the Secret Santa, who teamed up with reporter Nate Eaton of East Idaho News to find and distribute gifts during the Christmas season, helped out.
According to Mr. Eaton’s reporting, Kelly “was only 47 and was in great shape so it came as a huge shock to everyone.” Continuing, Eaton added that Kelly was “a very selfless, kind, patient and service-oriented man. He was always helping out where he could and was involved in the community.”
And so the Secret Santa stepped in with Eaton’s help. Eaton appeared at Courtney’s home with a slew of gifts from Santa: a check that covered Kelly’s funeral, $1,000 in Sam’s Club gift cards, and a $10,000 check. Opening the gifts, Courtney said, “I’m going to cry. Thank you, thank you to whoever. We appreciate it.”
This isn’t the first family that Mr. Eaton and the Secret Santa have surprised and helped. In another such example of generosity, the Secret Santa heard about a family from Madagascar with a newborn, prematurely born infant in the NICU, creating expenses the newly immigrated couple couldn’t afford. So, Secret Santa stepped in and sent Mr. Eaton to surprise them with an equally generous slew of gifts: 2,000 for groceries, rent paid for six months, and a $5,000 check.
Commenting on a video report about that incident posted to Facebook, one commenter said, “This is what this time of year should really be about. Giving to others with no expectation or strings attached. Great video. But all these are always so great to watch.”
Another commenter chimed in to note another aspect of generosity seen in the video: neighbors joining together to drive the family to the hospital. That commenter said, “You can tell she was so grateful for all of it. I loved this video, specially the fact that their own neighborhood rallied around to take them see their baby at the hospital, THAT is awesome.”
Watch one of Eaton’s Secret Santa reports here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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