In the seventies the Post Dispatch featured the "One Hundred Neediest Cases" at Christmas time. Social workers would submit stories about their families and the newspaper would select the best.

One of my co-workers wrote about a lady whose happiest day was her weekly trip to the cancer clinic. She was given enough money to buy nutritional drinks. Another received a radio for a blind client.

In all the years I submitted stories only one was picked. A teenage girl had lost a front tooth. After her story was published she was given the money to buy a tooth. A few years later someone was cleaning my office and introduced herself. I wouldn't have recognized her but she remembered me. She had a radiant smile. I'm not a hugger but she got hugged.

One of my best friends wouldn't read the newspaper feature. "Too depressing at Christmas time" she said. I wanted to knock her front tooth out.