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Thursday, November 30, 2000
First Christmas without daddy
Boy wants toys, but elders say he needs clothes, counseling
By Sara Lee Fernandez
Caller-Times
Javier, 4, isn't shy about showing his pleasure or his anger.
"When I get mad at him he cries and says he wants to go where his daddy is and I have to tell him he can't go where his daddy is," his mother said.
Javier and his 2-year-old sister Tita lost their father when he was killed in August in an auto-pedestrian accident.
"They won't have their dad for Christmas," said Irma, their mother.
She said Javier understands his father's death and she believes Tita understands a little bit.
When it comes to the holidays, their mother says they need clothes and shoes.
But Javier knows what he wants.
"A yellow car with black and a control," he said as a deep dimple peeped in his right cheek. "Big truck. And the ice cream thing."
His grandmother said Javier needs something much more important.
"He needs (counseling), they need someone," his grandmother said.
Javier, who already had problems dealing with anger, has gotten much worse since his father's death, Irma said.
Irma said she was supposed to get a list of counselors, but with all the government paperwork that has to be done, she's still waiting.
The family is representative of hundreds of families who will be helped by agencies in five counties participating in the 26th annual Caller-Times Children's Christmas Appeal: People Helping People. The names of people profiled during the appeal have been changed. All the money donated to the campaign benefits the children with any overhead costs borne by the Caller-Times and the agencies. The United Way of the Coastal Bend is the accounting agency for the drive.
This year's appeal has a goal of $105,000. In 1999, the appeal raised $102,512. More than 2,500 children benefited from last year's campaign.
Irma said she and the children get about $879 a month from her husband's Social Security survivor benefits and about $255 a month in food stamps.
Irma and the children live with her parents, but she wants her own home. She's been on a government-housing waiting list since before Tita was born.
So the little family will spend Christmas at her parents' home.
Both children also need beds, blankets and pillows, she said.
Tita's curly hair bobbed as she hopped up and down in her pink piggy slippers while holding on to her bottle and eating tart candies from a cowboy boot figurine. At 2 years old she doesn't really speak but she's happy to show off her Winnie the Pooh and to share kisses.
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