On the Seventeenth of December . . .

The hour is late, as is this post, but thankfully, love and kindness were right on time today.  I returned home from work after a twelve-hour day, and the long day could not have been for a better reason.  Tonight, I was privileged to welcome my friend, Dina, her two daughters, and two of her friends to the day shelter for homeless men where I work for a very special reason.

In honor of Dina’s twenty year old son, Tyler, who was killed in a house fire on Halloween, Dina established a memorial fund in his name at the day shelter.  Even in the midst of her grief, Dina was thinking of how to help others, and she asked that the donations be used to buy scarves, gloves, hats, etc. for our guests.  She did more than merely pay lip service to this project. Dina asked others to donate to Tyler’s Memorial Fund, then, she showed up this evening with her daughters and friends to help assemble the care packages that consisted of a hoodie, a pair of socks, a pair of underwear, a pair of gloves, and a hat that will be given to each guest on Christmas morning.

Tyler loved people, especially those who are homeless, and during this holiday season, his family remembered Tyler and those in need in such a beautiful way.  As we worked alongside one another tonight, there were plenty of laughs, smiles, and stories of Tyler, along with a few tears, and in the end, almost 200 men will have a merrier and brighter Christmas thanks to Tyler.  It would be very easy and completely understandable for Dina and her family to lose themselves in their grief, but instead, they found themselves in the service of others.

Just one thing each day . . .