Gifts worth remembering
Wisconsin readers share their most memorable presents.
The holiday season is a time to make new memories, but it’s also a time to reflect on years past.
This year, we asked readers throughout Wisconsin to look back and think of the most thoughtful and memorable gifts they ever received. The responses showed their loved ones sure put in a lot of thought into some presents over the years.
Some of the most memorable gifts weren’t the biggest, most expensive toy of the year. They were sentimental. Homemade. Small gestures in a hard time.
They were heartfelt displays of love and appreciation for those closest to them.
Here’s what they shared:
‘It was the best gift she has ever received’
Laura Broderick said her family gave her mother-in-law, Pat, a memorable gift several years ago in Oshkosh.
Laura said the family gave her a three-wheeled bicycle, and Pat said it was the best gift she has ever received. Pat is 83 and lives across from Menomonee Park. Laura said Pat’s 103-year-old friend, Harold, has a motorized scooter, and he and Pat would go to the park every nice day in the summer, with Pat pedaling along with Harold at the park. This year, the two went with their masks on.
“If Pat cannot pedal up a hill, Harold will nudge her from behind with his scooter,” Laura said.
Sometimes, Pat and Harold stop and watch the children play on the playground. One day, a little girl came up to
Pat, sitting on her tricycle, and told her she should ride her bike more often, so one day she could get rid of her training wheels.
“Pat never laughed so hard,” Laura said. “The bike has brought her so much joy, freedom, exercise and time with her aging companion.”
‘A stranger’s love to a family that she did not know’
Robert Pawelkiewicz from Menasha said the most memorable gift came in 1963.
He was 16. His father died from a heart attack in July that year, and his family went from a weekly paycheck to living off a small monthly Social Security check and government surplus food handouts, he said. They were barely getting by.
In November that year, when President
Kennedy was assassinated, the family’s 18-inch black-and-white TV died, and they couldn’t watch the funeral. As Christmas got closer, they knew there would be no presents under the tree.
Then, a few days before Christmas, his aunt’s friend, Rickie, came to the door with a box of brightly wrapped presents — one for each child and their mother.
“I have had many merry Christmases before and since, but the presents are a blur of shirts, sweaters and toys,” Robert said. “I will never forget opening that present, though. The only present I received that Christmas was a wallet with a silver dollar in it from a woman whose last name I never knew. And the real gift, of course – a stranger’s love to a family that she did not know.”
‘The left one had to be tried on’
June Grabow from Green Bay said her most memorable gift came on Christmas Day 1988.
She opened a present from her boyfriend, Jerry, and found the new pair of gloves she had asked for. He asked her to try them on, but she argued, saying she didn’t need to since they were perfect. When he insisted, she put on the right-hand glove.
“Then I started to put them away, and he insisted that the left one had to be tried on,” June said. “Very much to my surprise, there was a beautiful diamond engagement ring in the ring finger of the glove!”
‘What a thoughtful gift’
Cheri Miller from Appleton said she had 10-monthold twins named Meg and Mike in 1988 when she was looking through a women’s magazine and noticed a set of baby dolls. She always loved dolls, and the ones she saw were also named Meg and Mike and had blonde hair and blue eyes, just like her children did.
She said she tore out the order sheet and threw it on a stack of papers she needed to sort through and turned back to her active babies, who were getting into everything.
About six years later, Cheri turned to a pile of papers on her dining room table and found the order form. It was too late to order, and the women’s magazine had ceased publication.
Cheri said she began collecting dolls, but often lamented never ordering the two porcelain dolls from that summer of 1988. A few years later, Meg and Mike were in seventh grade and excited about a Christmas gift they had bought for Cheri.
She opened her present to find two blonde, blueeyed dolls named Meg and Mike.
Her twins had found them on Ebay and bought them for her.
“Those dolls hold a special place of display in my doll room,” Cheri said. “What a thoughtful gift for two seventh graders to purchase for their eccentric, dollcollecting mom!”
‘People thought I was nuts’
Gloria Bougie from De Pere said in the late fall of 1958, she and her now-husband, Roger, were talking about getting married. She told him she didn’t want him to buy her a diamond ring, because she had a special ring she wanted to wear with her wedding band.
Instead, she told him she would rather have a sewing machine as an engagement gift. That Christmas, she received a Pfaff sewing machine from him, as well as her first bowling ball from her parents.
“People thought I was nuts, but that machine made many articles of clothing for me and our children, as well as lots of home décor, crafts and quilts,” Gloria said. “After 30-odd years, I traded that machine for a new Pfaff that I still use today, just finishing a baby quilt for our first great-grandson-to-be. I also replaced the bowling ball, but bowled in leagues for 62 years.”
Last year, Gloria and Roger celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary. Roger bought her a diamond ring.
‘Then the magic began’
Sue Hoffman from Sheboygan said she received her most memorable gift when she was 5 years old in 1946.
The war was over, but rationed goods were still in short supply. Sue’s mother stood in line at Montgomery Ward in downtown Sheboygan to buy her daughter a quality doll with a rubber body – a material that was rationed at the time.
Sue’s mother paid $20 for the life-sized doll that wore just an undershirt and diaper and included a bottle, pacifier and small spoon.
“Then the magic began,” Sue said. “With scraps from her own projects – and those of others – Mother created a layette, baptismal gown, dress, sun-suit, nightie and blanket. Because she didn’t knit, she purchased a sweater, cap and booties set. Santa brought this doll at Christmas and I fell in love.”
Sue named her Kathy, and the pair went everywhere together that holiday season. The following summer, Kathy was Sue’s cherished little child as she played. As Sue got older, she stopped playing with Kathy, but her mother saved her.
Now, Kathy sits in a place of pride in a bedroom window seat, dressed in Sue’s father’s baptismal gown.
“Thank you, Mother, for this thoughtful gift. She stirs wonderful memories of you, and how much your cared for your little girl.”
‘I felt alive again’
Didi Karisny from Menasha said Christmas Eve 1988 was one of the saddest and most memorable days of her life, as it was the first Christmas she was unable to spend with her husband of 13 years. He died the summer before at 40 years old because of complications caused by a brain tumor.
Didi’s family always got together Christmas Eve, and she was always excited for the day, but that year, she was torn between being with family and staying home to grieve in private.
She chose to go to her family gathering, and after seeing them, she began to feel a little better.
Before they opened their gifts, Didi realized maybe someone might not be alive the next year. She went around the room of about 15 people and told each person how much she loved them. Eventually, everyone else followed suit. She said not everyone was comfortable back then, but everyone participated.
“It was all about love, indeed the greatest gift we can give or receive,” Didi said. “It made a difference for our family, but especially for me. I felt alive again.”