Family endures ‘blow after blow,’ hopes Goodfellows can provide some normalcy at Christmas
Wilberto and his wife are good children. After his father had a stroke, they moved in with his elderly parents to take care of them.
They also take pride in being good parents to their own children, whom they want to have a merry Christmas.
Moving in with his parents came at a cost, however. Wilberto said he took a pay cut. Meanwhile, his wife is unable to work as her visa does not allow it, he said.
Also, her mother is struggling in what could be the latter stages of stage 4 cancer.
On top of the parental challenges, he noted that both of their sons have recently been diagnosed with ADHD.
“And of them, we were just notified that they think he is also autistic,” Wilberto said.
“Our family, to say the least, has taken blow after blow,” Wilberto said. “We have done our best to shield our boys from all financial stress, though I know that they are aware as their birthdays came and all we could do was grab a cake and my wife hit a thrift store to find some stuff to pass as new.
“Christmas is around the corner and all we want is to give them a day where they can have a form of normalcy.”
The Goodfellow Fund can help with that. They’ve been helping children from families in need find holiday happiness for well over 100 years.
This year the Star-Telegram charity is helping 13,000 children in need in Tarrant County have a joyful Christmas by providing a $50 tax-free gift certificate for each child for new clothing from Old Navy.
“I would not normally reach out to places for help as I have always been one to provide for my family, but this year has just not been our year,” Wilberto said. “I just need help, so here we are searching for our family miracle in saving our boys’ Christmas.”
About the Goodfellow Fund
The story on the Goodfellow website describes its beginning as an offshoot of the first newspaper charity drive in the United States, started by the Chicago Tribune on Dec. 10, 1909. A Chicago city attorney wrote a letter challenging his friends to donate the money they would have spent on holiday partying to charity.
A couple years later, the Advertising Club of Fort Worth staged the first local Goodfellow campaign. On the day after Thanksgiving in 1912, Publisher Amon G. Carter brought the tradition to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
To find out more, or to learn more about helping, visit goodfellowfundfw.com. The post office box for donations and correspondence is P.O. Box 149, Fort Worth, TX. 76101.