A Christmas Delivery



This year, Santa, could you make a car for my mom? If you can’t make her a car, could you make her a raincoat? My mom has to walk a lot to take my sister to the doctor. She also walks me to school every day and when it rains, she gets very wet. Please help, if you can.

As customer relations coordinator for the Postal Service in Tampa, I take on the project each year to assure that every letter addressed to Santa at the North Pole is answered. But some letters require a little special attention, like this one we received one December, from seven-year-old Nicole Colon of Carrollwood.

We knew we had to try to help, but how? Then letter carrier Jim Cantrell heard about the letter. “Phyllis Lancaster, a customer on my route, is selling a 1985 Honda Accord,” he said. “Maybe she’d sell it at a reduced price.”

We contacted Phyllis who, moved by the letter, said, “Take the car.”

Amazed by her generosity, Jim thanked her. He then stopped by Dale’s Auto Parts, where Linda Marsonek, the owner, said, “We’ll donate the labor, if you’ll cover the parts,” after reading Nicole’s letter.

The employees at the Carrollwood Post Office took up a collection to pay for the parts and the Glass Doctor replaced the cracked windshield.

When I called Nicole’s mother, Madeleine, to tell her about the car, she was stunned, “I knew she had written to Santa, but I never thought…”

My heart overflowed with sympathy as she explained that without a car, each time Nicole’s baby sister had to visit the doctor, Madeleine had to walk six miles. Plus, she was walking two miles twice a day to drop Nicole off at school!

No wonder Nicole had written her letter!

We agreed to keep the car a surprise from Nicole. On Christmas Eve, as Nicole stepped outside of her friend’s house with her mother, her eyes grew wide when she saw the sight. A car in the driveway, covered with a big red bow, a backseat full of toys and fifteen postal employees on the front lawn! “See Mommy!” Nicole said. “Wishes can come true!”

As everyone was hugging that afternoon, I realized how right she was. This one small request, from a little girl for her mother, had transformed our postal employees into a very special group of Santa’s elves!

Bridget Robertson is a twenty-year employee of the United States Postal Service and currently serving as the customer relations coordinator in Tampa, Florida. She is very involved with numerous non-profit organizations and foundations in the Tampa area, serving on several boards. She is currently serving as the President of the Krewe of Agustina de Aragon, a volunteer-based women’s social organization that provides monetary and volunteer support to over 50 local non-profits. She has been married to her husband Dale for fourteen years, and has four cats and two birds.

This Story appeared in Amazing Grace for Mothers

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