As I sit here today, I am looking around the room and seeing the Christmas decorations set up inside and outside the house. Time is going by fast. Thanksgiving has already come and gone and our ice rink uptown is up and running. Soon Christmas will be here.
Lilly has been her usual self. Highly energetic and uniquely entertaining. October was an interesting month. Surrounded by pink ribbons everywhere, the push for fundraising was in full gear for breast cancer awareness. Even Lilly couldn't escape the constant flood of commercials, flyers and billboards. She didn't necessarily understand the specific cause, but she did know that all of the efforts were helping people. And if there was a chance to help people, she wasn't going to miss the opportunity.
The first effort was the jump rope. She could raise money for cancer research by jumping rope at school. "It will help people, right Daddy?" We filled out the form and Lilly raised around $70.00. The event itself must have made an impact, because when she came home from school that day, she was all about trying to find other ways to help people.
That weekend, we were out in the yard trimming back some of the summer flowers when Lilly began following me around with a plastic bag, collecting the clippings before they hit the ground. Two bags later, she was formulating her plan. "Daddy, is it okay if I sell these flowers to raise money for sick kids?" Off she went to corner with her bag of flowers, flagging down cars as they drove by trying to raise money. When the day was over, she had collected all of $6.00.
"Daddy, maybe we could go through my clothes and donate them to children who don't have them." Off she went into her closet, collecting the clothes that didn't fit and putting them in a bag for us to donate. "Can we go to the hospital now to give them to the kids?" I explained that it didn't quite work that way. I talked about how we could donate the clothes to Goodwill and how they would help the kids. I must have done a pretty good job explaining, because when we were done, she said, "so going to the hospital is more for giving them things like toys, right?".
The following week, one night I came home from work and Lilly had a bag filled with stuffed animals. "Daddy, I collected some of my old stuffed animals to donate to the kids with cancer. Can we go to the hospital tonight to give them to them?" Once again, I tried to explain. It was countered with a story from her of a commercial she saw where someone walked around the hospital handing out stuffed animals to kids. We talked about it some more and although disappointed, I think she understood.
This past summer, Lilly had been reading a lot about Russia. She was often on the computer looking up pictures. She had asked me lots of questions about the country and about where she was from. When she asked about houses, I was explaining that they were much smaller than ours and that a lot of areas of Russia were poor. She wanted to do something to help them and decided she was going to save her money. One day, I came home from work and Lilly had a large white envelope that was filled with money from her piggy bank. Her name and address was near the return address area and in the middle it just said "Russia". She asked me what the address is so that she could send her money there to help them. Along with the money, was a note that she wrote. She introduced herself and told where she lived and how she wanted to help them so she was sending them her money. Her Mother would be so proud.
Her next venture was introduced at the end of October when she told me that we needed to go to AC Moore to get more fabric. She wanted to make more blankets that she could donate. She said, "Daddy, I can donate them to old people, since they are always cold".
In thinking about the last 6 weeks, I recalled all of this. The flowers, the blankets, the money, the clothes. She has a heart of gold just like Lori. She is selfless is her thoughts and she is sincere in her efforts. And just like Lori, one idea would stream to the next. Whether it was bears or mugs, blankets or flowers, there was always a project in front of her.
Yesterday morning I got the call that is all too familiar this time of year. The call from one of my employees telling me that the zamboni was broken. I called one of my sitters and explained to Lilly that I was going to have to go to work to try to fix the zamboni. "How much does it cost to buy a new zamboni?" She was questioning me.
"I don't know, $40,000." I told her.
"Do you have $40,000?"
"No, I don't have to pay for it, it is for work."
"Will you lose your job if you can't fix it?"
"No, Lilly, don't worry about it."
When I came home later that afternoon, Lilly greeted me in the hall. In her hands was a plastic ziplock bag filled with all of her money. "Daddy, this is for your work to help buy a new zamboni."
As difficult as things might be at times, there are always people who have it much more difficult than me. I am often reminded of how nice it is to have Lori looking out for the family, she is an angel. But what I didn't expect was the impact she would have in providing me another Little Angel by my side.