One dollar for each day great-grandson lived

The red sign in her front window reads: “We Believe in Santa Claus.”

At age 83, Ruby Hahn apparently still does. The retired school librarian and widow is a fervent believer in sharing the joy of Christmas with children.

“I always wanted kids to have a good Christmas,” said Hahn, mother of four and grandmother of nine.

That’s why every year she sends a check to Goodfellows, The World-Herald’s charity that provides one-time emergency assistance, shoes, coats and clothes to needy school children and grocery vouchers for holiday meals.

A child of the Depression and a one-time single mother, Hahn also has known hard times and has tried with $25 and $50 donations to ease the pain of others.

This year, however, she gave $134. It may seem like more than someone on a fixed income could give — Hahn relies on Social Security and her late husband’s Postal Service pension.

But the amount represented a sad chapter this year. Great-grandson T.J., born three months premature in January, died the day after getting a lung transplant in late May. He had lived 134 days.

Hahn figured that $134 was a “good round sum” to donate and did so in memory of T.J. Gingerich of Omaha and in honor of her six surviving great-grandchildren: Samantha, Zachary and McKenzie in Houston and Carter Joe, Zoe and Jackson in Enid, Okla.

Hahn herself is no stranger to struggle. Several months before graduating from Papillion’s then country school, her family moved to a farm in Central City, Neb., and she finished there, graduating at age 16.

That winter she was tapped to teach at a country school about 15 miles from home. She was paid $25 a month, $18 of which went to room and board. She began each morning by starting a fire in the school stove for heat.

Her father’s advice: “Don’t ever sit down and bawl.”

That helped in later years when, after her four children were school-age, her first husband left her. She later met and married “the most wonderful person that ever was,” the late Marvin Hahn. He died 13 years ago of cancer.

Pneumonia kept Ruby Hahn from attending T.J.’s funeral. When the holidays came, she thought of her late great-grandson, grabbed the calendar, counted days and sent her donation.

The current Goodfellows campaign will serve the needy in 2010. All dollars serve the needy. The World-Herald pays all administrative costs.

Contact the writer:

444-1136, erin.grace@owh.com

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