I want to mention if you want to help groups who help people on the street, reusable bags are needed. If you want to grab a few extra at the store and drop them off, they will be used.

You can't just hand people some stuff and expect them to carry it without a bag so cheap reusable bags are great.

I think today was the extent of my Christmas season.

it's a long story you don't want to hear

We want to hear whatever you feel up to sharing.

Thank you for sharing this.

This is such a hard time of year for so many people. We're here for you, arse_hat.

Thanks guys.

I am still buzzing today. Rosemary's staff put together and funded this. They feed people for a living so they are not at the top of the economic ladder and yet they spent probably $600 on this in her memory. I wrote and dropped off a letter (and a toy) for them today. I hope they can understand how much this means to me.

The longer story is:

Rosemary died this year but in 2020, just before Christmas, the Director of Operations for the home died around this time. She was the person who hired Rosemary and the two of them were close. She was an interesting person.

In her 50s she and her husband lived outside the city. She drove more than an hour to work for 10 months of the year on a Harley she had rebuilt herself. She, Rosemary, and two other Directors worked crazy hours in the spring of 2020 to keep the home and the residents safe as Covid ran rampant, and people were out sick.

She was a good leader. The corporation's head office wanted her to take on a bigger role.

She accepted the new position. Just prior to that she had told Rosemary that she had a pain in her side and had a doctor's appointment coming up. Just days after leaving for the new job everyone heard she was in hospital and little else. She died a few days later. It hit everyone hard.

This time in 2021 Rosemary was on the phone with a supplier and they offered free coffee. With all that had happened in the plague times restaurants had been buying much less coffee and they had skids full of stuff hitting the best before date. My wife took delivery of a lot of coffee, and they took it round to drop-in centres, and outreach groups, and warming centres and so on.

So, her staff wanted to honor Rosemary and this time of year is loaded with a lot of memories.

Commemorating Rosemary's memory with an act of kindness is such a lovely thing to do.

What a gift you are to people, arse_hat. Rosemary is so proud of you.

That's lovely. And thanks for telling the longer story.

Such good people, all of you.