Editrix’s Note: The Story of Anything

It’s Tuesday morning and in true Editrix form, I’m already running at full speed before 8 a.m. I’ve got an interview, a photo op, and I am on deadline for two Thanksgiving pieces. One of today’s articles features information about the Lynchburg Angel Trees that popped up this week: one a Jack Daniel’s Employee Credit Union and a second at Farmer’s Bank. I know they don’t open the lobby until 8 a.m. but one quick phone call gets me in early. I hurriedly snap a couple of shots of the tree at JDECU – thinking through the layout angles as go. I take two horizontal close up shots and two vertical shots from a distance and continue on my day.

When I bring up the photos on my computer screen at the office for editing what stares back at me breaks my heart. The stocking I captured for my photo belongs to a local boy, age 15. Under the wishes part of his information, it simply states “anything” and it guts me.

I immediately call the credit union.

“Hey, this is Tabitha from the newspaper,” I explain. ” I was just there taking photos of the Angel Tree for the newspaper. The one I captured is green and belongs to a 15 year old boy. It’s labeled 17C, can you pull that one for me and I’ll be by this week to pick it up? That one’s mine.”

“I sure will,” she says and I hang up before I start to cry.

Maybe it’s just the mercurial nature of a 15 year old being asked what he wants. They aren’t too communicative at that age. I should know, my nephew just turned 16, and I experience my fair share of grunts and head nods. Or maybe, it’s the cool nature of a kid whose been disappointed in the past and doesn’t dare say the words out loud lest he be disappointed … again.

I don’t know who he is. I don’t know his story but I do know one thing for sure: Mister 15 Year I’ll Take Anything is gonna have an outstanding Christmas. I see a gaming console, a proper winter coat, and new clothes in his future. I can’t make a difference in every child’s life but for this year, I can make a difference in this one.

The Lynchburg Times will adopt him this year. If you’d like to help a Moore County child but don’t have time to do the shopping, you can Venmo us (@lynchburgtimes) and we can do the shopping for you.

Merry Cherry y’all.

Tabitha Evans Moore

Editor & Publisher