On Monday, Dec. 17, Lisa McDonald saw her Christmas go up in smoke.
Or so she thought.
McDonald, who works as a teacher’s assistant at Erwin Middle School, received a call that morning.
Come home quickly, the caller told her. Your camper is on fire.
Six months ago, Barry and Lisa had purchased a camper as an anniversary present for one another.
Lisa had been using the camper to store Christmas presents for her five children, six grandchildren and numerous nieces and nephews.
It also served as a clubhouse for the couple’s youngest child, Arisa, a fifth-grader at Granite Quarry Elementary School.
Lisa rushed home to see the camper destroyed.
This wasn’t the first time the McDonalds had been through a fire. Their restaurant supply business was destroyed by fire in 2005.
Lisa knew what she’d have to face, which made the tragedy even worse.
Thanks to the quick response of firefighters, the McDonalds’ house was saved. The camper was parked less than 6 feet from the home.
“The firefighters said if the wind would have been blowing like it was Sunday, it would’ve taken the house,” Lisa said.
She couldn’t help thinking about the previous fire.
“The smell of it just gave me a hole in the bottom of my stomach,” she said. “When I came around the corner, all these memories just came around again.”
On top of that, Lisa thought, there goes my Christmas.
But she also knew, she said, “It’s just stuff. It’ll be OK.”
She knew she and Barry could replace everything they’d lost.
Almost immediately, members of the McDonalds’ church, Faith Baptist, arrived at the house.
They brought Christmas cards with money in them.
“I’m the person who does the giving,” Lisa said. ” It was extremely, extremely hard for me to accept. Someone said to me, ‘Don’t take away my blessing.'”
She accepted all of them.
Two days later, Lisa was called into the principal’s office. She was scared to death she was in trouble for leaving school so abruptly ó even if it was a big emergency.
Instead, she received a manila envelope with a letter which began, “You are a part of a big family here.”
It praised her work with students.
She opened the envelope.
“It was full of money and checks,” Lisa said. “I was bawling. I thought I was going to pass out.”
Faculty, staff ó and students, Lisa found out later ó wanted to make sure the McDonalds would have their Christmas after all.
Arisa was sad that her DVD player and movies were burned up, but her parents assured her they could be replaced.
Lisa received message after message on her cell phone and her answering machine with offers to help.
“It’s just precious,” she said. “As a Christian, I always try to plant seeds, and I never know what those seeds will bring. All these things have come back to me and I’m reaping the harvest.”
We saw the McDonalds at the movies Tuesday night.
They were all smiling.
Christmas had come after all.
“It was a wonderful Christmas,” Barry said.
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Contact Susan Shinn at 704-797-4289 or sshinn@salisburypost.com.