Our Storytelling series on holiday giving from the heart continues. (To send us your stories, see the guidelines below.)

About 25 years ago, my mom and I were driving my sister to her weekend job at a bank Downtown. It was cold and snowy, a typical December day. On the way, we passed a homeless man standing at a bus stop, trying hard to keep warm.

My mother commented that she hoped his bus came soon. It was such a bitter cold day.

Over eight hours later, after picking up my sister from work, we happened upon that same man, in the same spot. It was still snowing; he was still freezing. We could not believe that he was still there so many hours later.

My mother turned the car around and headed back to the South Side to a sandwich shop. She bought several large coffees, a few hoagies, some bags of chips, fruit -- basically a little bit of everything the shop sold. She stuffed some money inside one of the bags.

She pulled on to the side street near the bus stop, got out and handed him the packages. I have never forgotten the look on his face as my mother approached him nor the feelings that stirred within me at that moment.

My mother was doing what she always did -- caring for others, being kind and generous, helping those less fortunate. But she was teaching her children valuable life lessons: how important it is to give; how we're all in this together; how every human being matters.

I learned more about giving and the true spirit of Christmas on that snowy day in December than at any other time in my life.

I had witnessed an act of love for a person we did not know and would probably never meet again.

When my mom got back in the car, she was crying. My sister and I were crying. We all felt that somehow this stranger had caught our eyes and hearts for a reason.

As we were pulling away from the curb, we saw several other cars stopping to give him something.

Perhaps it was God's way of reminding all of us what Christmas is really about.