Roy Exum: God Bless Cathy & Co.

  • Friday, December 19, 2014
  • Roy Exum
Roy Exum
Roy Exum

The secret to the whole thing is not getting caught but somebody at the Toys R Us store in Framingham, Mass., had a camera when Cathy O’Grady was very quietly paying off all the layaway balances at the popular location last week. The picture snaked its way onto social media sites and her friends quickly recognized the area’s most famous “layaway angel.”

Then somebody in nearby Auburn recognized the same woman from the photograph -- she had paid off the Toys R Us store there, too.

Darn the luck, Cathy can’t catch a break. Last February she got “outed” when she delivered 200 blankets, hats and scarves to homeless people so this week she finally “fessed up” to the relentless media.

“I saw a homeless man wearing a plastic bag as a coat last year so I decided to do something about it,” she told the Watertown newspaper. And that’s a story in itself. You see, her mother – who died of cancer in 1997 -- taught her how to do it long ago. “She always found the time, or something, to help the homeless or anybody who was less fortunate than her.”

In 2010 Cathy got a crowd together to take part in the Susan G. Komen Walk and named the team after her mother. That’s how “Sofia’s Angels” started but it’s never stopped and now her charity gives to all sorts of causes. Being a layaway angel is just part of it, she said, shying from the media exposure.

She did say this -- the smallest balance she paid was $4.41. “That was really hard, knowing that something that small meant such a big deal to somebody. That’s what makes me passionate about it.”

She wouldn’t say the total amount she paid but an email from just one of the stores said the payoff was $19,600. “No … I didn’t pay that much,” she said, “and in Framingham another lady got there before I did and paid $3,000 so the balance was a lot less.”

* * *

In Orlando last Sunday another Layaway Angel got caught but it is hard for Tim Tebow to go anywhere in Florida that people don’t recognize the ex-Gator football player who won the Heisman Trophy. Not only did Tebow pay off the layaway items at a Walmart, he then helped people haul the gifts to their cars in the parking lot.

* * *

The most legendary Layaway Angel was Larry Stewart of Kansas City, whose identity was revealed after he died of esophageal cancer in 2006. It is believed Stewart gave away $1.3 million as a Secret Santa, all because years before he was down-and-out in a Texas café and a man handed him a $20 bill, insisting in a loud voice that Stewart had dropped it. Larry knew better and he never forgot it. He played “pay it forward” for years.

In honor of Stewart, the sheriff’s department in Kansas City just deputized 15 officers last week as Santas and each, armed with $1,000 in cash, pulled over 10 drivers after “profiling” them to see if they could use an extra $100.

In Birmingham, Ala., the 12-member team that handles K-9 dogs cooked up a scheme. They had a Walmart employee call two women to say they’d won $50 gift cards and to be at the store at 6:15 p.m. to get the cards. The two unsuspecting women appeared and both layaway accounts were promptly paid – one for $200 and one for $288. Oh, each got a gift card, too, and the police helped carry the items to the cars. The kicker? The 12 Birmingham police officers funded the whole thing with their own money.

In San Antonio a woman appeared at a Toys R Us and paid off 250 accounts to the penny. Store employees said people actually wept when they pick up their merchandise and one, Chris Johnson, told a reporter, “It’s a blessing like no other.”

In Boston a widow dropped her wedding rings in the red kettle at a Salvation Army location, asking they be sold so some kids could have toys. The diamond ring was appraised for $1,200. But the Salvation Army got multiple offers for the rings, finally selling the set for $21,000 to an anonymous buyer who said he once rang a bell in front of a red kettle.

In Barnstable, Mass., a guy wearing a cowboy hat stopped at Marylou’s coffee shop and handed the 15 employees envelopes containing $100 each. None of the workers could recognize him, which is curious because it is believed the same guy was wearing a baseball hat the night before when he delivered eight similar envelopes with $100 in each at the Dunkin’ Donuts store. Nobody there knew he was, either.

In Tulsa a layaway angel paid of the accounts for 120 people at a Walmart but then gave orders – get this -- that each account also include a $100 gift card so those who had put stuff in layaway could get something for themselves this Christmas.

In Pennsylvania, on the day the layaway orders were scheduled to be cancelled, a guy who identified himself as “Santa B” delivered a cashier’s check for $50,000 to pay off 100 accounts, and in Gastonia, N.C., a man walked up to six people standing in the layaway line and, not saying a word, handed each a $100 bill. According to a report, four of those who received money were single mothers and another was a grandmother who was having to cancel her layaway to buy diapers.

In Meridian, Miss., a group of six people walked to different layaway counters across town and took turns swiping their credit cards to pay off dozens of accounts. They have been doing it for the past five years and it is believed one is recovering from stage three cancer while another is retired but cleans carpets all year to finance his “habit” as a secret Santa.

In Pennsylvania about a month ago Angie King, a single mother, was driving her 10-year-old son towards home when the kid spied a homeless man and made his mother stop to buy the man some food. Angie could hardly afford it but she got the man a warm meal at a restaurant. Last Sunday there was a late-night noise on her porch and, when she finally got outside, there were three huge bags of toys. “It's not about the gifts. It's just knowing that there's someone out there thinking about you and who cares about you,” she tearfully told a reporter. “There are real Santas in the world. There are people who are still willing to go out and help. It's pretty overwhelming.”

In Lake City, Fla., a man approached the manager of a Walmart and paid $63,000 to pay over 300 layaway accounts. Hours later the manager of the Walmart in nearby Chiefland, Fla., said a very similar man did exactly the same thing, tending to a bill of $53,000 to pay every account in full.

In Johnson City, Tenn., the layaway clerk at the Toys R Us called customer Monte Riffey to tell her a man had just paid $5,000 towards 52 layaway accounts and hers was one of them. "It was very heart-warming. Of course, I was very shocked that someone would do that for someone they didn't even know. I was very shocked and appreciative."

In Missouri a couple handed the manager of a Walmart $10,000 in cash and told him why. “They did say that it was a copycat thing, that they saw on television and they said, you know, what if they did it and it changed one person’s life. It was all worth it.”

In Detroit a police car stopped – of all things -- a city bus full of riders. A man dressed as Santa and his wife dressed as an elf got aboard and handed everybody on the bus a $100 bill. This is the seventh year the couple – from out of state – has come to inner-city Detroit and left $100,000 in $100 bills. As Santa’s wife told a reporter from the Detroit News: “It's very personal. Every human soul needs to feel touched. ... Every human soul needs to feel a connection to another human soul, and there's no sadder time than Christmas if you feel like you can't give your kids a present. Or you can't do the things you want to be able to do for your family.

“To put money in somebody's hands and have them say my kids are now going to have a Christmas? That has a compounding effect that is like the pebble in water. It spreads to that person and then who they touch and who they touch. Every day we read about all these random acts of violence ... but we have to change our world through random acts of kindness. All day, every day. Not just at Christmas.”

“I still think of the lady in the hoodie that we pulled over. She thought she was getting a ticket, she was crying over that. We gave her a hundred bucks, we gave her two hundred bucks, we gave her three hundred — I thought she was gonna’ break down. I still can see that car. I can see that woman. She's got two kids in the back. She's tryin' to get to work. So those memories will last forever.”

* * *

What on earth can you say, save for what Charles Dickens wrote in ‘A Christmas Carol’ -- “And it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, “God bless Us, Every One!”

royexum@aol.com

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