I've got to stop reading the New York Times. No, seriously. Everytime I do, I run across an article that moves me to blog on something that keeps me from my task at hand: finishing my book.

Yeah, okay, I admit it: I'm always looking for a reason to procrastinate.

Then again, the world is bigger than my plottin' and schemin'.

What got to me this time was this article about employees of a cookie factory, who have lost their health care.  It was one of the factory's few bennies, which paid between $13 and $20 an hour.  Most have us have been there, done that. I've been a freelancer practically all my adult life, and for a long stretch of that, my family and I had no insurance. So, yeah, I can relate.

 One of the people quoted in the article was a 37-year-old woman with two children, both of whom have asthma. What got me was when she told the reporter: "...we are not Christmas shopping this year — unless, by some miracle, mommy goes back to work and gets a paycheck.” She said she had told the girls, “'I would rather you stay out of the hospital and take your medication than buy you a little toy right now because I think your health is more important.'”

This, after she put off going to the doctor regarding an eye infection that ended up sending her in the hospital ER--which, as we all know, is 300% more expensive than a visit to her doctor would have cost.  (Been there, too. TRUST ME...)

Right then and there, I decided to be her secret Santa.

With a little online research, I was able to come up with her address. Already I've sent gifts to her little girls, ages 6 and 10.  I'm also sending her a box of books that I think she'll love. And if they aren't her cuppa, I'm asking her to give them to others she knows who have gotten laid off and could use a bit of holiday cheer.

Want to join me?  Email me at JosieBrownAuthor@comcast.net and I'll send you my address. Then you can send a book or two to me (I'm sure autographed would be appreciated), and I'll make sure that they go out in my care package to her (both adult, and age-appropriate for 6 and 10 year-old girls). Please send to me no later than Fri, 12/12, so that I can get them to her in time for Christmas/Chanukah.

We're all in this together,

—Josie