THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 24, 1995 TAG: 9512240010
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY NANCY LEWIS, CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines
Five-year-old Phillip Koch's attention is riveted to the television screen. He's playing Nintendo while his mother, Myrtle Koch, straightens up the house.
Just days before Christmas, Phillip's three brothers and two sisters, the oldest of whom is 12, are in school.
In a corner of the living room stands a beautifully decorated Christmas tree. A fire burns in the fireplace. The house off Holland Road is cozy, inviting, and this Christmas, for the second year in a row, Myrtle Koch and her children have much to be thankful for.
This year, however, marks the first time the 36-year-old mother will be able to afford gifts for her six children, a holiday meal and a tree. Until last Christmas, many of these things were beyond her reach. She was on welfare, lived in Norfolk and was separated from her husband.
Then she met Sheila Ferguson, and her life and the lives of her children were forever changed.
``I call her my guardian angel,'' Koch said of Ferguson. ``Sheila provided the flame, and our candles glow.''
Last year, Ferguson helped Koch find a home in Virginia Beach she could afford to rent, furnished it, gave her a car and coordinated efforts with Princess Anne High School to provide Christmas gifts and a holiday meal for the family.
It's a success story with an ongoing message of hope: that Christmas can and does live in the heart the whole year through.
``She is a success story,'' Ferguson said of Koch, who just three months ago finally got off welfare.
The two women's paths crossed in early November 1994 when Ferguson met Koch through a mutual friend after one of Koch's children got sick.
``I said to her, `How would you like to get out of here?' '' remembers Ferguson of her visit to Koch's Norfolk home.
Ferguson, who owns a rug cleaning business, managed a property off Holland Road in Virginia Beach, and ``took her to the house and said, `You can afford it,' '' Ferguson said.
Over the next year, Ferguson taught Koch how to manage her money.
Now, a year later, Koch has a different outlook on life, although she continues to struggle. She's currently out of work.
``This year, for the first time in my life, Christmas is paid for,'' she said, adding, ``this year will be better, as I've done it all by myself. . . . I don't ever want to fall back to depending on anyone.''
``Nothing would have been possible'' were it not for Ferguson, Koch said.
Ferguson, 46, knows what it's like not to have a family. She grew up without her natural parents. Her father was in jail and her mother was a prostitute, so a Florida court put Sheila into foster care. Fortunately, she was adopted after moving from one foster home to the next.
Now she devotes her energies to helping other families stay together.
A divorced mother of two, Ferguson works through Princess Anne High School to find families to help during the holidays. Her 23-year-old son graduated from the school, which her 17-year-old daughter now attends.
This Christmas, Ferguson is helping four families, including 18 children. Some of the children live at the Haven House in Norfolk, which houses homeless families. Others live at Hope Haven Children's Home in Virginia Beach.
In a letter Koch sent Ferguson, Koch lauds her benefactor for providing ``the hope and belief I thought almost gone.''
``I thought I was alone,'' the letter continues. ``Now I can hold my head up high. I'm not ashamed of what I don't have.''
``I believe the Lord did it all,'' says Ferguson. ``I was just His tool.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
STEVE EARLEY/The Virginian-Pilot
Sheila Ferguson, right, says Myrtle Koch, left, is ``a success
story.'' For the first time, Koch can afford to buy Christmas gifts,
a tree and Christmas dinner for her six children.
by CNB