At Mercy Home, as in many other homes, Christmas is a deeply emotional time. Not only as our kids reflect on days past, but as they create new memories that they will cherish for years to come.
See, for many of our children, their first Christmas at Mercy Home is often the first happy one in their lives. But for some others, who lost people they loved, it is instead a second chance at happiness, an opportunity to regain the joy they once had.
That was the case for Shaun, who came to Mercy Home just over a year ago.
Shaun’s life was never easy, but at least when he was very little, it was usually happy. His mother had struggled with lifelong mental illness and poverty, but she loved her son deeply, and did everything she could to provide for him.
“We hardly ever had money, and we were homeless sometimes,” Shaun said. “My mom was so sick she couldn’t work a lot of the time. But she still did stuff with me that didn’t cost money, like going to the park or the library.”
Through odd jobs, soup kitchens and occasional help from neighbors or a nearby church, Shaun and his mother made it through, day by day.
“Christmas was the hardest for my mom,” Shaun said. “She wanted so bad to get me presents like other kids had. She would take me by the stores when they were all lit up and hold my hand, and we would pretend that we could have anything inside.”
As Christmas neared, Shaun’s mom did everything she could, scrimping and saving to buy him a toy truck or a coat or a board game for the two to play together.
Though times were hard, Shaun smiles a lot while remembering those early years. But gradually, his mother’s condition worsened. As her health slipped away, she could no longer take care of her young son. Finally, one day when Shaun was 10, he found out that she was going to be hospitalized — and he would be sent to live with distant relatives.
“My mom, I knew she was sick, and it was getting really bad, but I loved her,” Shaun said. “And I didn’t want her to go away.”
Before long, Shaun moved in with an aunt and uncle who had three children of their own. His new family spent little time with him, and his uncle once locked him outside on a winter day for not cleaning his room. He asked to visit his mother, but they never took him to the hospital where she was living.
Christmas was the hardest, Shaun said. During the holidays, they paid him little attention, preferring instead to spend the day with their “real kids.”
“Christmastime, that was my favorite time with my mom,” Shaun said softly. “And that’s why it was so hard with my aunt and uncle. I didn’t matter to them at all, and with my mom, I was the most important thing to her. And she was the most important thing to me.”
One afternoon, Shaun’s aunt pulled him aside, and, in hushed tones, gave him news that brought his whole world crashing down.
“She said my mom died,” Shaun said, his gaze falling to the floor. “The doctors said my mom had a heart attack, and I never even got to see her before it happened.”
Heartbroken by his mother’s death, Shaun nearly gave up. His grades fell, he argued with his aunt and uncle and he occasionally ran away. Finally, his aunt and uncle told him that he could no longer stay, and that he would need to find somewhere else to live. He was only 13.
At a teacher’s advice, Shaun found Mercy Home. With the safe and loving home your friendship helps to provide, he settled in quickly, bringing his grades back up and becoming a favorite among his peers for his sense of humor and kindness. Early last year, he took a particular liking to our Financial Literacy program and began saving his allowance in a bank account. Unlike the other kids, he never spent his money, carefully saving each dime.
Then, just before a group shopping trip last Christmas, Shaun took a sizable portion of his money out of his account. At the end of the day though, his hands were empty. When asked where his purchases were, at first Shaun would not say a word.
Then he smiled, explaining that he had used his money to buy presents for the boys he lived with. “When I was with my mom, sharing presents with each other at Christmas was always our favorite thing to do. Now, these boys are my family, so I wanted to have the same memories with them that I had with her.”
