Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
IDAHO FALLS — A Secret Santa is giving $1 million to deserving people in eastern Idaho this holiday season, and the East Idaho News elves are helping out.
Every day from now until the end of the year, East Idaho News be posting a Secret Santa surprise, and recently it had a unique surprise for a man whose wife died earlier this year.
In the 10 years that Secret Santa has blessed people, he has never received a letter like this. It's from a woman named Kjerstin and says:
Dear Secret Santa,
I realize getting a nomination in February is unusual, but unfortunately, I won't be around in December, so hopefully, you will consider the request.
Back in 2020 I started passing out. Over the past almost four years, my health has continued to deteriorate to the point that I need full-time care. I'm a quadriplegic and I can't eat regular food. Finally after years of specialist after specialist and every test they could think of, I finally got a diagnosis of ALS.
It took so long I was near the end already and the doctor gave me three to six months and I am on the fourth month so understanding that I won't be here for another Christmas, I would like to nominate Dustin Cook for all the service he has provided over the past years. For those who don't know much about ALS, it is hard to explain just how much you lose. I am completely dependent on him for everything, and he continues to amaze me with the depth of his love and compassion.
He has tried and succeeded at taking on all of the household duties, finances, all the cooking, and cleaning – all while taking care of me which could be a full-time job and he does it in a way to make sure I know it is not a burden and somehow makes me laugh hysterically.
Before this all started, we had saved a little bit of money to do some fun things to our backyard. Nothing fancy – just fix a fence and extend the patio and get a pergola to have a little shade. Obviously when I got sick, there were a lot more places for that money to go, especially since I had to quit working in 2021.
My request for Secret Santa is for Dustin to have a comfortable shady spot to read his book. He's the most giving compassionate person I have ever known. Thank you for your consideration of Dustin Cook.
Kjerstin died a few weeks after writing this letter, and a friend submitted her request to Secret Santa. The friend added:
I also feel it is important to point out that Dustin continued to work on the police force serving our city during the duration of her 4-year bout with ALS. At the time of writing this letter, she had lost the ability to speak, and used an iPad to communicate.
She would use her eyes to tediously look at each letter on a keypad that was visible on the iPad screen that had to be perfectly set up within her eyesight and prick out each letter. I sat with her as she typed each word with her eyes for the letter that was composed for this nomination. It took many hours and so much strength from her to do this.
Her letter does not really touch the amount of love and service he provided her. He even somehow managed to always comfort those around him and her — especially as she got closer to the end. The night she passed, I was in the room with him before she had even been taken and he began calling to let people know she was gone. Every single person he spoke to that night he would immediately follow up the news with two questions — 'Are you okay?' and 'Is there anything I can do for you?' It was a tremendous thing to witness. He is so deserving of a cool place to sit in his back yard, where he spent so much time caring for her, to read a book.
East Idaho News tracked Dustin down at work and surprised him with a gift from Secret Santa. Watch the unforgettable moment in the video player at EastIdahoNews.com here.
