Couple washing dishes in their shower sobs when surprised with Secret Santa gift - East Idaho News
Secret Santa

Couple washing dishes in their shower sobs when surprised with Secret Santa gift

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Secret Santa is back and this Christmas is bigger than ever!

The EastIdahoNews.com team is busy helping a local man gift more than $500,000 this holiday season. A lot more. Secret Santa is a real person who wants to remain anonymous and hopes to help as many people as he can.

We will be surprising deserving people and families every day from now until Christmas with gifts unique to their circumstances.

April and Bryan Cole are some of the most genuine, selfless people you’ll ever meet. They are always willing to drop whatever they’re doing to help friends or family.

For the last 18 months, their family has been pushed from one crisis to another. Last December, their daughter Rebecca was admitted to the PICU with an unknown condition. Her stay was several days and she had to return in January for surgery.

Shortly after this, Bryan started to develop debilitating migraines and a longstanding eye condition required treatment. Although Bryan received treatment for his eye condition and sought medical help for his migraines, he was unable to work for several months. Eventually, Bryan’s doctor found a medication to help treat his migraines, and Bryan has returned to work.

April’s mom then fell in her house and broke her ankle. She was in the hospital for a week after surgery, and due to COVID, only one visitor was allowed. April volunteered. She spent hours every day keeping her mom company, bringing items she requested and keeping track of her medical care. April’s mother was eventually released to a care facility for recovery and April again saw her every day. She took time off of work to take her to medical appointments and navigated the Medicare maze to help her make arrangements to eventually return home.

Through all of this, April and her family have faced daunting medical bills and have had to postpone home and vehicle repairs. Currently, their home has no running water in the kitchen and they haven’t had the funds to hire someone to find out why and to fix it. They wash dishes in their shower since they don’t have a tub. Their stove has stopped working so if dinner can’t be microwaved, it has to be made in the crockpot.

Secret Santa heard about the Coles and asked the East Idaho News elves to bring them a special Christmas gift. Watch the video above to see the surprise!

watch Secret Santa videos

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