The 13th Gift: A True Story of a Christmas Miracle

In October 1999, Joanne Smith's husband Rick, a 45-year-old tool-and-die worker at Gem City Engineering in Dayton, Ohio, died in his sleep from a heart condition. Rick had been scheduled for heart valve replacement surgery but postponed the operation so his recovery would coincide with his children's Christmas vacation. He died before the surgery took place, leaving Joanne and their three children, Ben, 17; Nick, 12; and Megan, 10, in Bellbrook, a small suburb south of Dayton.

Two months later, as the holidays approached, the family was fractured. Joanne, a reporter at the Dayton Daily News, had been sleeping on the couch, unable to return to the bedroom she shared with Rick. Ben stayed out past curfew, withdrawn and angry. Nick retreated into video games. Only Megan clung to the hope of Christmas, acting as peacemaker. Joanne wanted to minimize the holiday, feeling their loss had left a hole nothing could fill.

On December 13, the First Day of Christmas, a poinsettia appeared on the family's front porch with a handmade card echoing "The Twelve Days of Christmas" carol, signed "Your friends." Megan was delighted, but Joanne resisted the gift. The next day, two bags of Christmas bows appeared; Megan sorted them by color, but Joanne threw them in the trash. Megan quietly rescued them. On the third day, three rolls of gift wrap arrived. Joanne discovered that Megan had left the bows she chose for herself in the trash, a sign her mother's resistance was eroding her spirit. That night, Megan whispered out her bedroom window, asking the gift givers to stop because the presents were making her mother sad.

Meanwhile, Joanne's sister-in-law Charlotte, married to Rick's brother Tom, urged her to give the children a proper Christmas. At Charlotte's insistence, Joanne attempted a shopping trip but broke down in a store bathroom, overwhelmed by Christmas music and memories of Rick. She abandoned her cart and sat alone eating fast food in a parking lot.

On the fourth day, four gift boxes arrived, triggering a confession from Nick. His bedroom door had been open the morning Rick died, and he had watched Joanne try to revive his father. He had been closing his door ever since, not for privacy but to avoid reliving the scene. He carried guilt because Rick had told him about the surgery, and Nick believed he could have saved his father by insisting the operation not be delayed. Joanne told him he was not to blame and invited him to sleep near her on an air mattress.

On the fifth day, five angel note cards appeared. At a grocery store, Joanne overheard two mothers saying the family was "falling apart." Megan told Joanne they were not falling apart but "just chipped a little bit." At home, Joanne found a note in Rick's shirt pocket listing Christmas gifts he had planned to buy, then accidentally destroyed it in the washing machine. She searched Ben's room fearing trouble but found only gifts he had secretly bought for his siblings with grocery money. Nick asked to move his bedroom to the basement, away from the room where he had witnessed his father's death. Drawing strength from Megan's resilience and Rick's note, Joanne agreed, and the two began cleaning out the space together.

On the sixth day, six holiday cups arrived. The family worked together to paint Nick's new room, and Charlotte took them to buy a lopsided white spruce, the last tree on the lot. On the seventh day, seven golden apple ornaments arrived. Joanne waited past 2 a.m. for Ben and entered the master bedroom for the first time since Rick's death, packing his belongings for donation. Ben arrived home in tears and confessed to speeding on country roads at 90 miles per hour until a deer leaped into the road and he heard Rick's voice telling him to brake. Joanne confiscated his keys. The next morning, Ben had strung lights on the tree by himself, explaining he needed it to be "just me and Dad." That afternoon, Joanne met a man named Charles at a Goodwill donation site who had lost his job and was searching for a Christmas gift for his daughter. She gave him a bag of Megan's outgrown clothes and toys, saying "Merry Christmas" sincerely for the first time that season.

On the eighth day, eight cookie cutters arrived. Rick's former coworker Terry Molnar visited with $3,453 in cash and gift certificates collected by 88 Gem City employees. Joanne told her children to honor the generosity by making Christmas merrier for someone else. That evening, she engineered a blackout by flipping the circuit breakers, forcing the family to share stories about Rick by candlelight.

On the ninth day, nine votive candles arrived. Joanne staked out by a window and spotted a small figure approaching the porch. She climbed atop a bucket for a better view but fell, catching only a flash of a smile. Instead of frustration, she laughed genuinely for the first time in months. Energized, she shopped successfully for the first time, and the family decided to host their traditional Christmas Eve gathering.

On the tenth day, 10 dancing Santa paper dolls arrived. Joanne bought two mountain bikes for Nick and Megan and hid them in the garage. She encountered a woman at a store who bought 52 poinsettias each year to fill her husband's nursing home room, telling Joanne that knowing someone cares is enough. That evening, Joanne and Megan sang "The Twelve Days of Christmas" together while cooking and baking, the first time Joanne had sung since Rick's death.

On the eleventh day, 11 chocolate mice arrived. Joanne completed her shopping, buying a computer system and furniture for Nick's room. Megan asked to visit Rick's grave. At Calvary Cemetery, she hung the seven golden apple ornaments on a small tree beside his gravestone while the family told Rick about their twelve days of gifts.

On Christmas Eve, the twelfth day, the family prepared a feast and waited for the gift givers to reveal themselves. Extended family filled the house: Joanne's mother, Tom and Charlotte, her sister Lori and her sons, and Rick's brother David and his wife Dorothy. The gift givers never appeared. Megan suggested they were something to believe in, "like a miracle." On Christmas morning, Joanne found no footprints in the snow and no gift on the front porch. Then the family dog howled on the back deck, and Joanne discovered the twelfth gift: a small artificial pine trimmed with 12 brass bells. The card said the gift givers hoped they had made the family's Christmas easier and that someone had once done the same for them. Joanne realized the gift givers had themselves endured loss. She gathered her children to explain "the thirteenth gift": The legacy of kindness passes from one grieving family to the next.

In the final chapter, set years later, Joanne reveals the gift givers' identities. They were Susan and George Armstrong of Kettering, Ohio, a retired social worker and a retired art teacher who had played Secret Santa to 22 grieving families. Their children, Noah, Zachary, and Natalie, dressed as ninjas to deliver the gifts. It was seven-year-old Natalie whose smile Joanne glimpsed from the window, and Zachary who left the twelfth gift on the back deck. The Armstrongs began their tradition to honor their stillborn daughter, Andrea, who died on September 29, 1989; they had themselves received anonymous twelve-day gifts after Andrea's death. Joanne traces the tradition to its origin: Sue and Ron Hundt, a couple who had lost six of their eight children. Ron devised the concept of using the carol, and the Hundts began the tradition in 1988. Joanne reflects that the thirteenth gift is the lesson that joy and sorrow can coexist and that kindness stretches across generations. She commits her family to carrying the tradition forward.