- In December 2001, Brian Logan was unemployed and caring for his dying mother. His unemployment benefits combined with his mother’s pension totalled $718 a fortnight, barely covering the essentials, let alone anything extra for Christmas
- Two volunteers had come to drop off a Christmas hamper filled with festive treats such as pudding and custard, as well as plenty of staples to keep them going
- After securing work later that year, Brian decided it was time to return the favour. As Christmas approached, he filled a washing basket with goods from the supermarket and took it into Vinnies at North Sydney
- It’s a tradition he has continued for more than 20 years
- Brian Logan shares his story below…
I stood sweating in the supermarket queue, clutching my basket. It contained only a few items of food, but I was worried I wouldn’t have enough money to pay for it.
“Fifteen dollars and 50 cents,” the woman said, and I handed it over.
“Merry Christmas!” she said.
“And to you,” I replied, smiling with relief.
Read more: Aussie mum helps son discover the Christmas spirit
Back at home, I unpacked my meagre shopping.
“Let me help,” my mum Valerie, 73, said before breaking into a coughing fit.
“No, Mum, you rest,” I said.
I was 35, and Mum had been living with me in Sydney after falling ill. She’d worked all her life caring for others as a nurse for the elderly.
Quitting acting in favour of a more regular income, I’d put all my savings into launching a business which then tanked. By Christmas 2001, Mum and I just scraped by on my unemployment allowance
and her small pension, totalling $718 a fortnight.
Christmas was our favourite time of year. I felt so sad that this year there would be no presents and no tree.
“We have each other,” Mum said.
“I know, but it’s not the same,” I said.
Then, on Christmas Eve, there was a knock on the door. I opened it to a woman holding an enormous basket.
“I’m from St Vincent de Paul,” she said. “And this is for you.”
“Are you sure?” I frowned.
“Quite sure,” she said.
When Mum and I opened the hamper, we both cried with gratitude. There was enough food to last us months and lots of treats, like a real Christmas pudding with custard — Mum’s favourite.
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“This is just so kind,” Mum said.
She had been benefiting from visits from Sister Mary Gomez Peters, a lovely nun from the Catholic church in Lane Cove who sat with Mum, drinking tea and chatting.
I suspected she was the one who told our local St Vinnies of the dire situation we were in.
That hamper not only saved our Christmas, it fed us until Mum sadly passed away in February 2002.
After she died, I swore I would repay the kindness.
Two Christmases later, I had a job and just enough to fill a washing basket with non-perishable food items and some festive treats, and took it to my local St Vinnies. It’s a tradition I’ve continued ever
since.
In 2014, I met my wife Kristi, and when we moved to the Central Coast in 2019, I started donating to a St Vinnies there, too. Every year, I include a card to say how my gesture was in memory of my
lovely mum.
I’ve never known who gets my hampers, but last year, when I’d been donating for 22 years, I met a Ukrainian refugee when I handed in my hamper.
They suggested I give the hamper straight to her.
Through a translator I told her why I do what I do.
“You’re like my son,” she said tearfully, explaining how he was back in Ukraine.
That made me cry, too.
I now run a successful web design business, own my own home and write novels.
Christmas remains my favourite time of year.
I hope my story inspires others to donate to St Vincent de Paul this Christmas.
There are a lot of people doing it tough, and the little miracles — not the big ones — are what keep the world turning.
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