It all began on a cold winter night in the month of December, just about a week shy of Christmas in a small one-red-light town in Rhode Island, where a man named Ollie lived in a single-family home with his spouse, Brenda, and their three small children. Christmastime in their household had always been their favorite time of the year, especially Ollie’s. Something about the family togetherness, the making of gingerbread houses, singing Christmas carols, decorating the Christmas tree, and taking family Christmas pictures for Christmas cards to mail out to family and friends.'
What Ollie didn’t know, though, was that this Christmas holiday was soon going to be a nightmare neither he nor his spouse nor their children would ever forget.
On this night, Ollie, Brenda, and their three small children took their family Christmas photo next to the Christmas tree in their matching reindeer pajamas, as they did every year. Later, Ollie and Brenda tucked their children into bed one by one and read them bedtime stories till they fell asleep. Then Ollie and Brenda exited their bedrooms and sat down together, deep in thought, because Christmas was exactly one week away and neither one of them had the funds to get their children gifts for Christmas. Brenda was waitressing at two different restaurants, but she didn’t earn enough.And poor Ollie beat himself up constantly because he could not find work anywhere, no matter where he went. Nobody would hire him due to his mild disability of cerebral palsy and being half blind in one eye due to an accident at birth; the doctor scraped his right eye with forceps.