Miracles

[Capt. Morgan]

We always hear the bad news in the papers...perhaps if we heard good news more often, it would create a wave of giving, compassion and understanding. THIS is what the holidays are all about....

Wrong Number Miracle
Mom was going to miss mortgage payment if she sent daughter money
By ERIC S. PAGE
Updated 11:08 AM PST, Mon, Nov 30, 2009

Virginia Saenz could hear the desperation in the voice of the telephone message. It was 5 a.m. on the day before Thanksgiving, and the caller, Lucy Crutchfield, was trying to tell her daughter that she'd send money for groceries -- but she'd have to miss a mortgage payment to do it.

But Crutchfield dialed the wrong number. Instead of getting her daughter, she got Saenz, a real estate agent from the San Diego suburb of Tierrasanta.

"I know right now we are all struggling," Saenz said. "Lisa on the phone, she sounded so desperate for her daughter, it broke my heart."

Saenz did the only thing she could think of -- she called Crutchfield back and said not to worry. Crutchfield would pay the mortgage, and Saenz would handle the groceries.

She said, 'You have the wrong number ... don't worry any more,' " Crutchfield recalled.

For Crutchfield, it was a holiday miracle. Her house is already in foreclosure. Her mother recently passed away, and Crutchfield is now trying to pay off her house. She had a money order prepared to make a mortgage payment on that house -- but was going to cash it in when her daughter called asking for money.

"I thought I was going to lose that house, too," Crutchfield said.

Saenz told Crutchfield to keep her money and promised to take care of her daughter. The real estate agent then called Crutchfield's daughter.

"I asked her what she would like, what her kids like, and then I felt really bad because she said she only wanted eggs and milk," Saenz said. "When somebody only asks you for eggs and milk, they are in a really bad situation."

So Saenz went grocery shopping on Thanksgiving morning with her 14-year-old son in tow to tell her what kids liked to eat. They bought food for a Thanksgiving dinner and enough groceries to get Crutchfield's daughter through the end of the month -- her next payday.

She said the act of giving made "the day special for me."

"I helped somebody," Saenz said Friday. "I think it's what anybody would have done."

[Dracconia]

Thank you for posting this. It made me cry....I am so thankful for those who give.

[LadyShadow]

How wonderful.  Thank you for sharing.

[Lord Moravec]

This definitively shows there is good in this messed up, crooked world. This also shows how karma and our higher powres can help when we need it most.

[Celtic Lady]

Thank you so much for that story. It reminded me of a couple different times in my life that were special like that.

The first was when my son was in grade school. Back then we were receiving state aid. Christmas was and still is very important to me. I always enjoy shopping for others... taking time to plan out what I'm going to give them, cards I'm going to send, etc. It always seemed the closer it got to Christmas the less likely I would have enough for presents and such and that Christmas was going to be very slim. Even still when we would go out if I saw a Bellringer I would always put whatever spare change that I had into the pot. My belief was and is there is someone in a worse situation than me and whatever I can do to help I will. By the time Christmas day arrived our tree was surrounded by gifts and family. I feel that by me sharing what little I had God (or whatever you call the Higher Power) helped me. Anyway, this one day my son and I were out shopping and of course put money in the Bellringer's pot. We left the store and as we were driving past another store that had another Bellringer in front my son shouted "Mom, stop!" I thought I was going to run someone over but there was no one in my way. I asked him what was wrong and he told me he had to go put money in the pot.

The second one involved a man standing at the end of my street holding a sign that read "will work for food". It was a chilly fall day and seeing that really bothered me. I bundled my son up and we went to the grocey store where we bought a few things.  I had a small blanket in  my car that I wasn't using so  after shopping we took the groceries and the blanket to the man. He was so shocked to see anyone do something like that for him. He asked me what I  needed to have done. I simply told him nothing.  It gave me a good feeling inside.

[RSLeask]

Some very heartwarming stories here, thank you all.  I'll pitch in one of my own here.

My family used to go down every year to Florida to visit my grandparents for Christmas during the break from school.  After Christmas, we'd usually go make the trip over to the Atlantic side to visit with a cousin by the beach.  We were out there in the evening, right before sunset, and I was out in the water as was my usual thing as a kid (I loved swimming)... not even thinking about undertow or low tide or anything.  Long story short, I was getting swept out to sea, waves crashing me from all sides, keeping me under almost constantly.  By happenstance, I was getting swept past a natural rock pier, which still had some fishermen on it.  Though I could barely even get out "Help!" for the waves toppling over my head, one managed to see me bobbing, and cast his line out to me.  I managed to break the surface at the moment I was coming up on the line.  However, I would have never seen it, except that the line was caught in the light of the setting sun, coming from the shoreline.  A brief glimpse, but it was all I needed to snag that line, and be pulled in (I won't even go into the whole being "saved by a fisher of man").  Best Christmas miracle I ever had... and Christmas present, for that matter.