Rebecca Droke, Post-Gazette Roberta Hall, 41, with her daughter Amanda Kelly, 6, at their home in Turtle Creek. Ms. Hall, who has struggled with hereditary bone and muscle disorders since childhood, hopes to make Amanda's Christmas as special as those she remembers when she was growing up. Click photo for larger image.

Roberta Hall remembers the big Christmases of her childhood, when she and her four siblings would gather around a tree so towering that it brushed the ceiling and had to be anchored to the walls of the living room to make sure it didn't topple.

Now she lives in a little house across the alley from the old homestead in Turtle Creek, and she's trying to keep the spirit of holidays past going even as she deals with a difficult present. She's got an already-trimmed tree, with a train underneath and stockings nearby, but she's also got chronic health problems that complicate this and every season.

Ms. Hall, 41, has struggled with hereditary bone and muscle disorders since she was a child, conditions that make her vulnerable to frequent falls and easily broken bones. She lives on her Social Security disability income, supporting her younger daughter, Amanda, 6, with the steady help of Amanda's father, Joe Kelly, who has serious health issues of his own.

"Both being on SSI -- it gets a little hard around Christmas," she said of her and Mr. Kelly's ability to stretch their incomes to include some of the things Amanda would like to find under the tree on Christmas morning.

That's where the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Goodfellows Toy Fund comes in. Donations to the fund help support the Marine Corps Toys for Tots program that works to provide toys for children whose families have hit hard times.

Ms. Hall, like many of the people who turn to Goodfellows for help, isn't particularly comfortable admitting she needs a hand. She grew up in a family that made its own way.

Her father was a steelworker, her mother a nurse. Both are now deceased. Her mother's training proved a godsend when two of the Hall children -- Roberta and her older and only brother Bill -- developed an early-onset form of osteoporosis, a bone disease most often found in old age, and a separate muscle problem. Together, the conditions meant a lot of broken bones for the kids.

"My mother would take care of us," Ms. Hall explained. "Checking the casts. Keeping them clean. She always had to be the first one to sign them every time I got a new cast.''

And she got plenty of those. So did Bill, who died two years ago. Even doing something as simple as walking down the stairs in a slightly different way could cause a new fracture or re-break an old one. It still can, she said, elevating her right foot a bit as she sits in her living room to explain that it is just healing from a recent break.

She fights the dispiritedness that can accompany chronic illness by focusing on Amanda, a carefree first-grader who, among other things, wants to be a cheerleader for the Steelers no matter that the team right now doesn't have a squad.

"She's a real ham, that's for sure," Ms. Hall says of her daughter. "She keeps us going."

Ms. Hall also has an older daughter -- Jessica, 19 -- from a marriage just out of high school. Jessica lives in Charleroi and is working on Christmas Day so she won't be able to join her mother, little sister and Joe Kelly for dinner that day. But a niece and two rambunctious nephews probably will stop by.

It will be a special time, just like the Christmases she remembers in the blue house across the way.

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Today's total: $6,076

Grand total: $74,219.99

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J. McShane.....$1,000

Dave Duncan.....$350

Dr. & Mrs. Charles A. Kremser.....$250

Next Step Foundation.....$200

Neil & Bronya Strosnider.....$200

Mike & Diane Woodring.....$200

In memory of Elio Salvador.....$200

Paul Niederberger.....$150

Eleanor Berge.....$150

Northview ALA Student Council Penny Drive.....$100

Mrs. Phyllis Thomas.....$100

Mrs. Jane Treese.....$100

Mr. & Mrs. Richard F. Romig.....$100

Mona Riordan.....$100

In memory of Davita Colker.....$100

H. David & Melissa Thomas.....$100

Gregory Davis.....$100

Elinor McLennan.....$100

Anonymous.....$100

Julia & Joey Falcioni.....$100

Jeff & Sharon Evans.....$100

Homer L. Walton.....$100

Grace W. Ferrero.....$100

Gerald & Marielle Bartolomucci.....$100

George W. Will.....$100

George B. Duffey.....$100

Fran and Bob Modrak.....$100

Dr. Rade B. Vukmir.....$100

Dr. Jack Abarbanel.....$100

Dr. & Mrs. Frank H. Brown.....$100

Jim Leindecker.....$51

In honor of our children.....$50

Anonymous.....$50

Anonymous.....$50

Anonymous.....$50

Anonymous.....$50

John Gallaway.....$50

Jack and Jill.....$50

In memory of Thomas L. Kerin.....$50

In memory of Ronnie L. Schroeder.....$50

Ervin & Theresa Deal.....$50

Edric Craven.....$50

Donna Weisseg.....$50

Dennis & Theresa Wilkins.....$35

Anonymous.....$30

Patti B. Lando.....$25

In memory of Bud Killmeyer..... $25

Evangelista family.....$25

Eric Hixon.....$25

Diane D. Lange.....$25

Anonymous.....$25

Anonymous.....$25

Anonymous.....$25

Josh and Zachary Comfort.....$25

Jean E. Douglas.....$25

In memory of Robert G. Doyle .....$25

Hall family.....$20

Garnet L. Hoffman.....$20

James & Susan Devlin.....$20

In memory of William and Lena Franks.....$20

In memory of Terry and Jack Weber.....$20

Don Kremmerer.....$20

Mr. and Mrs. J.R. Yoho.....$15

Michelle Duke.....$15

Jonathan W. Bargerstock.....$15

Frederick & Ruth Lorensen.....$15

Patrick M. Brunick.....$10

Nora Kearney.....$10

Nancy Cotton.....$10

In memory of Harry Stauffer.....$10

In memory of Doc Pritchard.....$10

Hanna-Abby-Margaret Eck.....$10

Don & Donna Baer.....$10

Janet R. Radman.....$10

Divi Pakish.....$10

James, Karl, Christina, Amanda & Karissa.....$5

G.L. Ward.....$5

Deidre L. Jones.....$5