Families seek assistance as COVID financial downturns linger
From a public health perspective, the COVID-19 public health emergency is over.
For many among us, though, fallout from the pandemic continues. “Covid changed our lives in all ways,” a mother of three children, ages 12, 11, and 10, wrote in a letter to Globe Santa.
The Norwegian airline she worked for went bankrupt just a few months after the COVID-19 outbreak, and although she was able to find another job, she hasn’t recovered financially.
She now works full time at her children’s school, she wrote, but the lower-paying job provides just enough to meet her monthly bills.
Her expenses are no longer manageable.
“[My children] are always concerned about having enough money to take care of things at home — which is not their burden to carry,” she wrote. “It breaks my heart.”
Widespread layoffs and bankruptcies as a result of the pandemic affected many other parents as well.
“I lost my job due to COVID in 2021,” the mother of a 7-yearold boy wrote to Globe Santa.
The company she worked for shut down and finding a comparable job has been difficult. And while the financial pressures are very serious, her family is now grappling with an even more urgent concern.
“My husband can not work due to end stage kidney disease,” she wrote.
Despite their hardships, her letter ended on a touchingly selfless note.
“If Santa can provide a gift for [my son] that would be wonderful!” she wrote. “If not, it’s OK to help the less fortunate.”
Her son deserves to be remembered this holiday season, and he will be among the tens of thousands of children who receive gifts from Globe Santa, a program of the Boston Globe Foundation that provides and distributes holiday toys and books for children in need, so they will not feel left out or excluded.
For children, that is a very big deal.
“I would be so grateful if you could make this Christmas special for my children,” a mother of three wrote. “They have not had anything to look forward to all year long.”
You can help brighten a child’s holiday by visiting globesanta.org
For 68 years Globe Santa, a program of the Boston Globe Foundation, has provided gifts to children in need at holiday time. Please consider giving by phone, mail, or online at globesanta.org.