This article appeared in the Huffington Post in December of 2011. It explains how it came to be that this will be the 33rd year that my friends and family have gathered to create beautiful gifts for the Good Shepherd Home for Women and Children in downtown Los Angeles. We have never missed a year. During COVID, when I could not travel, my sisters and my friend Ryan and a small posse pulled the gifts together. It is our chosen family Christmas tradition.
For a very long time we got gifts for the families housed by the Center, but at least ten years ago the nuns asked if we could take on doing gifts for the thirty or so women who are in the emergency shelter, as very few donors were interested in addressing the grown women seeking refuge there. We happily agreed.
We have been hitting the stores, gobsmacking cashiers with our stuffed shopping carts, and calling each other with reports of the treasures we have found. Gail will bring thirty pairs of new pajamas. Friends have dropped off soap, socks, and any number of lovely things. Ryan, my sisters, and I will convene Monday night to go through our inventory and figure out what else we might need.
The wrapping party will be this week. There are many, many pals who have made it a point to always attend. It is a long night as we carefully remove price tags and sort through the items, determined always to make sure that each woman gets the same number of goodies. It is important to us all to get it right. Then the tinsel, wrapping, and decorating begins. The bags and baskets have to be beautiful … there is care in the effort.
The women go to mass on Christmas Eve and when they return, our offerings are waiting on their beds. The gifts are filled with scented lotions and soaps, and products for their hair and nails. There are face masks, makeup, and other special treats nestled in vibrant tissue paper and festooned with colorful bows. The sister says that the women almost always cry when they are told that volunteers provided the gifts because we want them to know that they matter … that we care.
I reread the Huff Po article with some sadness. Sister Joan Mary passed on several years back, and many of my favorite employees have retired … some to their homes, some to the heavens. It has been an honor to work with these everyday heroes for three decades and counting.
I am filled with gratitude for the work that the home does. It is not glamorous, not easy, but they have saved countless lives and helped to heal many hearts.
I am also deeply moved by the folks who turn up every year to donate their time and treasure to this simple cause. That is all the Christmas I could ever ask for, and it fills my heart with all the love that it can hold.
On we go …
Beth, this reminds me why I hoped you'd be on the Board of Truth be Told (serving women in prison) many years ago in Austin. And also makes me so grateful that your magnetic attractiveness and energy brings many others into your Festive and Loving giving of gifts to those neglected and invisible people who like you and me, aren't suffering from poverty. Some of us can't bring ourselves to be face to face and heart to heart with suffering people ... but to find a way to gather with those we feel SAFE with (friends like you) and create gifts that will be handed to those who feel called and blessed in the presence of the one's whose material blessings have been withdrawn or never taken for granted is a BEAUTIFUL BRIDGE to sane and healthy connection. Very Grateful for this gift you gave me today, in remembrance of ALL of us who have enough to live graciously and to share! And to all of those who bless their daily caretakers for their own calling to practical service. Nathalie
What a wonderful way to celebrate Christmas! Happy Holidays to you and Roxy!