Donna Bortmes holds a picture of her and her family at Christmas when she was younger.

It was the winter of 1959 when Donna (Rupert) Bortmes, 62, of East Butler lost her oldest brother Ronald in a tragic hunting accident.

“My mother's grief was inconsolable,” Bortmes said. “She cried all the time for the loss of her first born son.”

Bortmes' father, the late Donald Rupert, was unemployed. The remaining seven children lived in a small house in Bruin.

The windows of the girl's room, located in the front of the house, were covered with ice on Christmas Eve.

“We had all gone to bed earlier than usual for fear Santa would pass up our house and not stop,” Bortmes said.

Most of the young children were sleeping when Bortmes heard car doors shutting. The family couldn't afford a car, so Bortmes wondered who it could be.

“I took my tiny hands and put them up to the ice covered window to thaw the ice so I could get a better look.”

To her surprise, it was not Santa, but people from the community and local churches carrying presents, foods and Christmas decorations.

“That love of that community made me feel that everything was going to be all right,” Bortmes said.“That terrible nightmare of losing my brother was sad, but there were those who really cared and would be there for a little 10-year-old girl, for her sister, brothers and parents was the true meaning of Christmas.”