Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, December 26, 1993 TAG: 9312260065
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Long post office lines and packed parking lots gave way to a relaxed time when families gathered and reflected on the true meaning of the holiday, if only for a day.
Just being alive was enough for Dan Stickney, 47, a father of six recovering from his second heart transplant.
"I don't think I would have made it to Christmas" without the new heart, said Stickney, who lives just outside Philadelphia. "I'm just going to enjoy my family, enjoy life and enjoy Christmas."
The essence of Christmas was evident in the Chicago area, where an anonymous donor, or donors, dropped gold coins into Salvation Army kettles.
Five gold coins turned up, worth up to $400 each.
Remembering family - and dealing with loss - was the holiday message behind a Connecticut contractor's gift to a fatherless boy.
When 7-year-old Kevin Cavallaro's father died earlier this year, he figured there would be no one to help him build the tree house he wanted for Christmas and his birthday, which fall on the same day.
Contractor Alan Kostek of Killingworth, Conn., also was born on Christmas and also lost his father when he was young.
When he heard about Kevin's holiday wish for a tree house, Kostek and his construction crew got to work. They delivered a two-story, roofed tree fort to the Cavallaro home on Christmas Eve.
Kostek had fretted that the boy wouldn't like it.
"He went nuts, and when I knew he loved it, everything was all right," he said.
It was a white Christmas for much of the East, with snow falling in parts of Michigan, Pennsylvania, Indiana, West Virginia, Kentucky, New York and Ohio.
by CNB