Wouldn’t you think Roxanne Harwood had done enough for the world this year? Even though she raised her four children, is 57 years old and doesn’t have a full-time job, she is adopting a 3-year-old child who needed extra attention.
Still, Harwood had more to give.
The Snohomish native works as an apartment manager, paid by free rent, at her Casino Road complex in Everett, a place where some of the renters get low-income grants for their units, which run about $595 to $695 a month.
Casino Road neighbors are reaching out to other tenants, the poor giving to the poor, demonstrating the true meaning of the season.
"People who don’t have money are giving what they can," Harwood said. "We hope to have enough to help five families."
At the Casino Road apartments, they’re trying to make it a home, Harwood said.
"We want to let the people trying so hard know that what little each of us does really does matter," she said. "They can see how happy it makes people when we just make them a meal, put in a roll of toilet paper when they move in or share our scrawny little food bank in a storage unit."
Harwood was helping others the first time we met. I talked to her two years ago when she was a volunteer at the Center for Battered Women in Everett. Harwood said abused women needed help from all of us just to survive.
"So often I hear people ask, ‘Why do they stay?’" Harwood said. "So often I weep, because where can they go? How can they get there?"
The former bartender is still on her do-gooder mission. Harwood is a member of the Everett Association of Apartment Managers Against Crime. She said the association is trying to make Christmas bright for a handful of families. For more information about donating, call 425-355-8277.
"Our complex is doing one family," Harwood said. "We have collected a little over $100 and some food."
She had help in the campaign from tenant Tricia Bigelow, 26, who has become a family friend. Bigelow lives on Social Security but shared what she had for the holidays.
"I’ll do whatever I can," Bigelow said. "We’ll donate toys from my kids. I’d like to see smiles on other faces."
It’s hard to find Roxanne Harwood not smiling. Her adoption of Elizabeth Ann, 3, is moving along through the legal process. Though Harwood has little money, she has enough love to go around.
"Of course, I’ll be past 70 when she graduates high school, and hopefully senile enough to actually enjoy her teens, rather than sweat through them like my four originals."
At the Harwood apartment, 3-year-old Elizabeth Ann was buzzing about like a normal toddler.
She wasn’t always so cheerful. She had come from an abusive family. Harwood said when she met the baby, she was considered "feral" and possibly autistic. She was told the child would never progress.
Harwood chose to look on the bright side and has poured so much love, attention and discipline on the toddler, she is thriving like a summer rose. I couldn’t believe the bright child had a rough beginning.
Many of her neighbors also come from rough beginnings. Together, no matter what their incomes, they pulled together to find the merry in Christmas.
"Giving made them feel happy and makes them feel tall," Harwood said. "It always makes you feel tall when you could help somebody."
Columnist Kristi O’Harran: 425-339-3451 or oharran@heraldnet.com.
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