Mother is gone, but the kindness of strangers helps

By Bill McClellan
Of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
12/27/2004

Bev Aitken died early Sunday morning. So she made it through Christmas, and she saw for herself that the kindness of strangers is more than just a phrase.

The whole thing began when one of Bev's kids came home with a duffel bag filled with money. Jeff Aitken, who is 17, found the bag in a shopping cart at Schnucks. He's a junior at Ritenour High School and he works part time at Schnucks. He found the bag while he was in the parking lot collecting carts at the end of the night.

"The last roundup" is what the kids call it. He looked in the bag and saw cash. Hundred-dollar bills, and lots of them. He took the bag to his car. This was something to talk over with his parents.

That speaks highly of the relationship Jeff has with his folks. Also, it speaks highly of Jeff because there really wasn't much question what his folks were going to say. Money has never been a driving force for Dave and Bev Aitken. That's why Bev quit her job in 1982 when the first of their four children was born. She and Dave decided to forgo a second income so that Bev could be home with the kids. So when Jeff came home with a bag with $21,500 in it, he had a pretty good idea what his folks would tell him. Do the right thing and return the money.

That was not easily done, however. There was one check in the bag and it was made out to Aladdin Wireless. That company was not listed in the phone book. Dave could not find it on the Internet. The thought occurred to Dave that perhaps this was drug money. That would explain the cash. If it was drug money, it was like an act of providence. Bev had ALS. Dave had quit his job to care for her. They had gone through their savings.

So it would have been easy to rationalize a decision to keep the money, but no, that would not be right. Jeff took the bag to the police station. It turned out that the fellow who lost the money - yes, there was an Aladdin Wireless, but it was a brand new company - was at the police station to report his loss. He was so thrilled to see that somebody was returning the money that he gave Jeff a $2,000 reward. The story made the newspaper and the radio stations. Jeff became something of a hero.

All by itself, that had to be a wonderful Christmas present for Bev. One of her kids had done the right thing and had been recognized for it.

People who knew the family contacted me and said there is really so much more to this story. This is a great family, the people said. So I visited and then wrote a column about Dave and Bev. A number of people responded. We'd like to help, they said.

So people sent cards, and some sent checks, and somebody even showed up at the Aitkens' door on Christmas Day with cookies and a gingerbread house.

Bev died in the early morning hours Sunday, the day after Christmas.

I stopped by later in the morning to drop off some cards people had sent to the newspaper. The family was gathered. Mike is the oldest at 22. He is studying political science at Lindenwood. Jen is 20 and an anthropology major at Southeast Missouri. She has taken a leave from school to help care for her mother. She'll be resuming her studies either this spring or in the fall. Jeff and the youngest brother, Steve, 13, were also there. Dave was trying to figure out funeral arrangements. He interrupted that task to talk about the outpouring of care the family has seen this last week or so. It has meant a lot, Dave said. He showed me the gingerbread house.

Mike talked about trying to help organize something to promote ALS research. He mentioned the Jack Orchard Foundation. I said I knew Jack and his wife, Eve. They're special people. As are the Aitkens. And the people who reached out to help. It's nice to know that Bev was able to see the kindness of strangers.

It must be heart-breaking for a mother to know she is leaving her children, but there is some solace, I like to think, in knowing that the world in which she is leaving them is not an entirely cold place.