For those reading this article for the first time, this is a continuation of a true story that has become an inspiration during Christmas since 1998 for the Rotary Club of Makati members and their Anns, the real power behind RCM.

“As she approached the neighborhood she sought, the woman noticed the houses were increasingly dilapidated. The address proved to be a one-room shack in the rear of the last house on a dead-end street. Walking the sidewalk, she noticed that no one had made tracks in the previous night’s snowfall. She knocked on the broken door and waited, but there was not a sound from within.

Knocking again, she heard a child begin to cry. The force of her knock had pushed the door ajar, and she saw a child — soiled and dirty — standing beside an unmade bed. A single light bulb, hanging from the ceiling, dimly lit the cold, bare room.

The pathetic sight compelled her to enter, and there on the floor behind the table, lay a woman. She bent down and realized in an instant that the woman was dead. She panicked.

Her first thought was to close the door and run…but someone might have seen her enter the shack. And the clerk at the department store knew she was delivering the gift. So the woman unwrapped the doll, and she gave it to the child, who cuddled it and stopped crying. Then she ran down the block to a grocery store and called the police.

The officers arrived shortly; they estimated that the child’s mother had been dead for more than eight hours. While the woman comforted the child, the two officers discussed what agencies should be contacted, and whether a place could be found for the little girl to stay this late on Christmas Eve.

Suddenly the woman had an idea. Why not take the child home? In arguing her case, she was so persuasive the officers agreed to cut the red tape and arranged for her to have temporary custody for the holiday weekend.

It proved to be the most wonderful Christmas she and her husband ever had. They had no children, and their families lived out of state; they were planning to spend Christmas alone.

Late Monday afternoon, a social worker arrived and reported that the authorities had been unable to discover who the child was. There was nothing in the shack or on the woman’s person to identify her. None of the neighbors had ever talked to the child or her mother in the two months they had lived there.

My new friend’s prayers were answered when the social worker agreed to let her keep the child while the search for identification and relatives continued. A year later the woman and her husband adopted Cyndi, who by then had become the focus of their lives.

As we sat together and talked, the woman told me that today Cyndi was grown and happily married, with a three-year-old daughter of her own, who was also named Cyndi. The woman, now a widow, was flying to spend Christmas with them in Denver. She was bringing the angel doll for her granddaughter; it had been the last one in the store.”

***

There is an interesting postscript to this inspirational tale of the Last Angel. During the traditional Christmas Bazaar that the Anns organized in 1998, Ann Brin decided to put up our own version of the Last Angel tree bedecked with stars representing kids that members could choose from to give a gift to.

From a handful of members and friends, perhaps no more than 30 or so who donated probably about P100,000 for about 50 kids, the 2024 edition today raised about P1.13 million solely from the individual members to benefit about 1,000 kids — which makes almost 21,000 children who have benefited since the start of the Last Angel tree.

The beneficiaries have been selected from the rolls of about 20 institutions and parish-based community organizations who help the underprivileged of society.

However, I can’t end this piece without sharing my own true Last Angel story that happened only last week at a Gawad Kalinga village in Las Piñas City.

As we were handing out Christmas gifts to the children ranging in age from five to 10 years, an Amerasian child standing head and shoulders above the rest for her heavy-set build, curly midnight black hair, and smooth as night ebony complexion, stood before me to receive her gift.

I noticed her name tag said she was 6 or 7 years old, so I handed her a gift for her age. But instead of receiving it, with her sad, soulful, pearl-shaped eyes, she pointed to a teddy bear which was tagged for the 10-year-olds.

Mindlessly, I immediately uttered, “sorry, that’s for an older child” and handed her another gift. As the ceremony wound down, we started handing out food packages. Again, the same child stood out as she noticeably refused to receive her food pack, sitting motionless in her seat, head hunched down with the gift I had handed her unopened.

Immediately, I sensed what the problem was so I walked over to her with the last teddy bear to tell her that she was such a good girl that Santa decided to give her another gift! But could she please give me a smile? Slowly she lifted her head with tears still glistening in her round soulful eyes that slowly broke and transformed into an almond-eyed smile.

What a great way to spread the spirit and cheer of Christmas. MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

Until next week… OBF!

For comments, email bing_matoto@yahoo.com.