In this issue of The Post are the stories of three local families who could use some help to make their holiday wishes come true. The Post ’s wish is that anyone able to make a donation will do so in exchange for bringing a smile to someone who could really use one.
The newspaper is accepting donations through Monday, Dec. 9.
Linda Tippie wakes up at 6 every morning to start getting her three granddaughters ready for school.
The eldest, Tiffany, 12, leaves at 7:20 a.m. Her younger sisters, Bree, 7, and Cacosta, 4, leave an hour later.
Linda walks them down the street to the bus stop, carefully treading down the occasionally snowy steps of the front porch of her trailer home in Guysville.
She picks them up at the end of the day, and the girls tell her of their days in school. One day last week, the sisters said they look forward to their upcoming school functions, like the Christmas concert featuring Cacosta, Bree and their classmates.
As the holidays approach, their grandmother is reflecting upon the season as well.
Linda suffered a car accident more than 20 years ago, rendering her with a curved spine and neck and qualifying her as disabled.
She always dreamed of being a nurse, and got close at one point, working as a nurse’s aid. But when it came down to attending medical school, she walked away from the field due to its complications and her parent’s financial struggles.
Despite leaving her dream of becoming a nurse and even after the accident, she still keeps herself busy during the day while Tiffany, Cacosta and Bree are in school — holding executive board positions in her volunteer work has been a huge part of her life.
“I worked with (the Friends & Neighbors Food Pantry) since they first started,” she said.
She also volunteers by teaching Sunday School to the first- and second-grade students at her church.
“When I’m not there, I miss the clients (at each organization),” Linda said.
She was forced to take some time off recently to recover from a case of bronchitis.
Linda’s affection for her clients isn’t a one-way street: When she’s not sitting at her desk at the pantry, clients ask where she is and when she will return, said Lisa Roberts, director of the pantry.
“Linda has a really nice personality,” Roberts said. “She’s really super sweet and always puts the clients at ease. … She jumps right in there (and is eager to work).”
Some clients even give her gifts in time for the holidays.
Linda said she is unsure how often she will help out at the food pantry this holiday season, but pointed out business tends to pick up around the holidays. She is considering helping by baking some desserts to take to the clients, and whatever else is needed.
Linda loves cooking and baking for her family around the holidays, too.
She cooks for herself, her three granddaughters and their parents, who occasionally visit, she said, adding that the offer is extended to her other family members — her other son, siblings and nephew — but it is not always fulfilled.
“It hurts when family doesn’t come (home for the holidays),” Linda said.
Certain members of her family are not as close as others, and her nephew, Brandon, has had health problems such as pancreatitis. He was recently transferred to a hospital in Charleston, W.Va., where they will work to help him increase his appetite.
Linda’s husband passed away about seven years ago after a heart transplant, leaving an empty seat at the table for the holidays.
If she could have one Christmas wish, it would be to have everyone together, but she added, “that’s probably never going to happen.”
@KellyPFisher
kf398711@ohiou.edu
How To Help: — Linda is asking for cookware: pots, pans, skillets and other cooking gear. Her three granddaughters would like doctor play kits, board games and jewelry (specifically bracelet or necklace) making kits.
