December could easily be called the Month of Holidays. In America and  around the world, some of our most important holidays are celebrated by billions of people of various faiths. These are holidays such as Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanza, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Boxing Day, Mawlid, Omisoka, and for fans of Seinfeld, Festivus.

Although each holiday has different significance and meaning for different people, there seems to be a central “holiday spirit” that is shared by everyone this time of year.  It is a spirit of sharing, caring and reaching out to our fellow people with acts of kindness that truly demonstrate good will to all.

One such act of goodwill occurred  just last week at a local school.

The holidays had become painful and difficult for a 10 year old fifth grader named Roselyn whose mother passed away unexpectedly two days after Thanksgiving after gallbladder surgery.

The loss was devastating to her family. Above and beyond the pain, this misfortune  would change this holiday season and future holiday seasons forever for her and her family.

Word spread quickly of this tragedy through the school district and reached the local sheriff’s department. Together, the school and sheriff’s decided to step in and shower  Roselyn, her three older sisters and her father with Christmas presents.

“We know she will have very strong emotions tied to the holidays after the passing of her mother,” said one of the deputies who helped organize the event. “We wanted to give her a positive experience she can look back on and associate it with the holidays.”

“But what we really want, years in the future, for the family not to think of the holidays as the time of sadness but as a time that they will remember when everybody came together so that they will know it’s all about the love and the spirit of the season,” he  said.

This truly exemplifies the true spirit of the season. It embodies love, caring and reaching out to one another especially when it is most needed..

It is in that very spirit that we at Forest Lawn wish you all the Merriest Holiday Season for you and yours!