Widow raising her 8-year-old grandson hopes Goodfellows can help make Christmas special
Sheila’s grandson Jacob came to live with her when he was only 5 months old. He was left in the neonatal intensive care unit at the hospital by his mother when he was only a day old and his father was incarcerated.
“I was finally allowed to visit Jacob when he was 3 days old. I looked at that beautiful baby and he looked just like my son when he was born 37-plus years ago,” Sheila wrote in a letter to the Goodfellow Fund. “I knew right away that I needed to bring Jacob home with me. Through the years his mother and father have been repeatedly incarcerated and have shown little interest in being an active or consistent part of his life.
Around the time that he was 9 months old, Jacob’s grandfather passed away. As Jacob got older, Sheila recalled he would say in his prayers “Thank you God that you gave me to Monnie and Monnie to me because we are so good for ‘our chudders’ (each other).”
Jacob is now an energetic, typical 8-year-old. Sheila boasts about what a great student he is, and how friendly, outgoing and well-behaved he is — most of the time, she jokes, except for the occasional test of wills with his grandma.
Naturally, she wants to give him the best Christmas possible. However, it is hard on just her Social Security check.
And now, she is struggling to get her car some major repairs, adding to their hardship amid a very strict budget.
The Goodfellow Fund can help Jacob have a nice Christmas, as they have been doing for more than 100 years. This year the Star-Telegram charity is providing children such as Jacob with $100 gift cards to Old Navy stores to purchase new clothing.
The amount is double the previous $50 cards to help offset the rising costs of goods.
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.
New and additional donors are welcome and needed to help cover the cost of doubling the gift card amount.
New and additional donors are welcome and needed to help cover the cost of doubling the gift card amount.