By Pam Chaplowe-ruth

With hopeful weariness, Sue said, “I hope some day to be in a better position, where I can pay it forward.”

A quiet, grateful mother of two, Sue and her children are one of the many recipients of Salem’s Christmas Fund. As the holiday season roars on full tilt, it is community assistance programs like this that help families maintain some semblance of the gift-giving ritual.

Sue doesn’t know exactly who donates to the Christmas Fund. She’s only familiar with her family’s need for help, the process of requesting assistance and the welcome rush of relief as her appointed “shopping” time is arranged. When she actually sees the bounty of donated new items – toys, crafts, gift cards – all arranged neatly by recommended age group of the recipient, Sue begins to feel the first stirrings of excitement and joy of the holiday season. Her own gift? The relief that she feels being able to provide presents and full stockings for her children on Christmas morning, a treasure that all parents can recognize and appreciate. That is gift enough.

Aside from the quiet manner in which families like Sue’s are being assisted, these neighbors are part of the fabric of life seen every day in the community. Hardworking parents with similar circumstances of divorce, medical issues, compounding costs of living, they are often surviving barely within their means. A holiday season is especially difficult for those with children to find means to provide extras in the way of gifts and festive meals. Watching three minutes of commercial air time can make even the most stalwart optimist crumble with despair.

Sue is an example of many single mothers who struggle between providing for their children and encouraging them in various activities and school. The gentle art of molding moral and kind human beings makes a very full day for this mom. Her 16-year-old, along with being a typical teenager with all the emotional exercise that entails, also suffers a medical condition that demands Sue’s additional time and attention.

Her lively 10-year-old, in that zone between child and young adult, has places to go and things to do on a daily basis while still needing appropriate supervision. How to keep everyone fed, housed, safe, sane and happy?

“Sometimes I have to decide whether to put the heat on in the car when we’re driving because it uses more gas if I do,” Sue said.

That’s just one of her methods of allocating what they have with what they need. Late at night, when she is supposed to be sleeping is when most of her worries come unbidden. How to have one child somewhere, when the other needs to be picked up at the same time? How to make sure she’s home when her 16-year-old gets out of school so she can keep tabs on his medical issues? Will she need to wake her 10-year-old, wrapped in pajamas to sit in a cold car while she drives to pick up the older sibling from a part-time job?

Such is the reality when extended family lives out of the state and mom is the foundation, mortar and brick of the family unit.

But Sue said things are looking up. When she heads to the warehouse to pick out gifts for her children from the carefully sorted items she will look past the now and see herself someday donating to this very same organization, helping another parent very much like herself.

“I’m kind of old to believe in Santa Claus … but I guess in a way, right now I do,” she said