Tessa Lorraine
In 2009, my then-husband and I purchased a house in the City. As part of preparing for our high-tech living, my husband went into the crawlspace to clear the way for the technician and a smooth setup.
He emerged with two giant garbage bags insisting I HAD to look inside them because it was important. He thought people would want what was in the bags.
We had just moved. There were boxes everywhere, two dogs to settle into a new yard and a thousand other things to do. I was having none of this "look in the bags" business.
A couple of weeks went by and I finally had a minute to look. I was shocked! There were birth announcements, immigration documents and photos, wedding photos, first communion photos, invitations to birthday parties for old and young alike. There was something for nearly every important marker in a person's life. My husband was right, someone DOES want these back. I set out to find the owner(s).
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Thumbing through the albums, I found an invitation to a 1-year-old's birthday party. I called. I left a message saying, "This is going to sound crazy, but I just moved into a house in St. Francis Wood. My husband found bags with photo albums in the crawl space. Your number was on an invitation. I'd like to get them back to their owner(s). Please call me."
A few days passed. A woman called saying, "That was my aunt's house. She lived there for years. She would kill me if she knew I told you this, but she went through a horrible divorce. Her husband kicked her out in the middle of the night with nothing but the clothes on her back. Once she was gone, he went about the business of destroying everything that belonged to her. He cut up her clothes, he threw out her jewelry. He destroyed everything. He must have hidden the bags and forgotten about them." I swore myself to secrecy, gave her my number and told her to have her cousin call me to retrieve the bags. He grew up in the house and lived barely a mile away.
Once the cousin called, we set a date for pick-up. When he arrived, I met him at the door with the bags. He told me a similar story as the niece. I did not betray her confidence. I handed him the bags. He said his mother would be joining them for Christmas. "She doesn't know about the bags. It's all we have left of our life together. This is the best Christmas gift we've ever received." Grabbing his hands, I looked him in the eye and said, "This is the best Christmas gift I've ever GIVEN."
The holidays aren't always about what we get. Giving can be an equally, even superlative, enriching experience. The above story is my personal tale of the gift of giving. At Rianda House a main part of our mission is to give to our Upvalley senior community. In 2024, we offered over 1,200 classes with 15,000+ visits among our participants. We are grateful beyond measure to all of you for giving to us. Thank you!
(Rianda House is closed for the holidays and reopens Thursday, Jan. 2.)
Tessa Lorraine is program manager at Rianda House. She holds a master's degree in gerontology and serves on the Napa County Commission on Aging. She lives in Napa with her beagle, Biscuit. To volunteer with Rianda House, call Tessa at 707-963-8555 ext. 103.
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