Believing

“I believe in angels.”

Kathi Burton apologized to me as I entered her modest downtown apartment Monday afternoon. She was sitting on a chair folding laundry and stacking it on her bed to be put away. I perched on a nearby desk chair with my notebook and pen.

“I don’t have much, but it is enough for me,” she explained gesturing to the rest of her apartment. She commented that when her grandchildren were younger they would come for visits and stay there with her. They are older now and she doesn’t see as much of them as she did in the past.

“I believe in angels and I believe in devils,” Burton repeated to me, noting that she has come into contact with people representing both ends of the spectrum over the years.

I felt awkward talking with her as she folded her laundry. I could hear my mother’s voice in my head telling me I should be offering to help her as the polite thing to do.

Instead, I asked her to tell me her story. She had contacted The Star News office last week looking for help because she wanted to thank someone, but didn’t know who. The message got to me on Monday morning and with it, the suggestion that I would want to talk with her and hear her story. I’m glad I did and I am glad she agreed to let me share it.

On August 23, Kathi came home as usual and checked her mailbox.

Inside was an envelope addressed to her with no postage stamp and no return address.

When Kathi opened the envelope she found it was filled with money. It had $465.70 in it, to be exact.

There was no note and no way of telling who the money was from or why they felt the need to give it to her.

While there are people for whom that amount of money is pocket change, few of those folks live in Taylor County and even fewer would give such a gift anonymously.

In the weeks since, Kathi has tried to work out who was the anonymous giver hitting dead ends along the way. It has bothered Kathi that she has been unable to thank them and to tell them how much she appreciated their generosity.

She is afraid that whoever it was that gave it to her would feel that she was ungrateful.

“I was raised better than that,” she said, in a voice that once again echoed with the lessons my mother had taught me. Kathi recalled the lessons from the movie “Pay It Forward” where good deeds should be answered by doing good deeds for others.

Kathi has used some of the money, another portion she was able to loan to her daughter and she looks forward to saving the rest in order to buy Christmas presents for family members.

We talked some more and Kathi told me about a Christmas-time trip to see relatives she had taken with her now ex-husband and children years ago. They broke down on the highway and a stranger had stopped and gotten them towed to the only service station open. They didn’t have the money to pay for the repairs, but the stranger covered the cost to get them back on the road, taking no more than their thanks.

Kathi tells of how she watched him drive away into the darkness and how his taillights vanished upon pulling out of the lot.

Kathi Burton believes in angels and has good reason to do so.

Whoever it was that was her angel in leaving her the money, she wants them to know that she is grateful and to thank them for making life just a little bit easier.

Brian Wilson is News Editor at The Star News.