By RODNEY HART
Herald-Whig Staff Writer

Thirteen years ago, Betsy was newly divorced and didn't have a clue how to have Christmas for her four children at home.

Betsy, not her real name, was a 1996 Good News of Christmas recipient. She's volunteered every year since for the campaign, which helps area families in need of Christmas gifts and vital household items.

"It was a Christmas I will never forget," says Betsy, 61, who has eight kids and 18 grandchildren. "Every year at Christmas, we talk about it."

She remembers that lonely 1996 Christmas, which came on the heels of her alcoholic husband leaving. She had no money, and was working part time and attending school full time. She had four older children still in the house and a young grandchild living with her, too.

"When he walked out, I didn't know what I was going to do," Betsy says.

She was attending counseling at the agency now known as Cornerstone when the counselor recommended her family become a Good News recipient.

Betsy and her kids remember the day they went to Quincy University's North Campus to pick up their boxes. Inside were clothes and bedding, and a warm winter coat for Betsy, who wore it for the next 12 years.

She also got a refrigerator and help paying bills, including back taxes and an overdue power bill.

"My kids were old enough. They saw what was going on in the house with my ex. I just don't know what I would have done without it," she says.

Included in the family's Good News Christmas was a rocking chair for the little grandchild. Betsy even got a pair of prescription eyeglasses for the first time in her life.

She also remembers the now-funny story of every child in her house getting a box except one of her daughters. Good News organizers called her a short time later.

"They said it had fallen off the truck on the Gardner Expressway, when they found it," Betsy says with a big laugh.

Betsy now has a full-time job and moved a few years ago to a comfortable house on the city's north end. She shops for a Good News case every year, taking her daughter and grandkids with money from Good News organizers and working off a list of items.

"When you do one family, it makes you know that family will be as happy as we were and help them get back on their feet as we did," she says.

She bought items for a single mom with two girls ages 1 and 2. The mom didn't want anything, but Betsy worked out a budget to get her a few items, including a winter coat.

Christmas is much better now for Betsy. She'll have her eight kids and 18 grandchildren over for Christmas, a full house with fond memories of a Christmas 13 years ago.

-- rhart@whig.com/221-3370