Last modified: Wednesday, January 2, 2008 12:57 AM EST Thanks for rescuing Christmas This first column of the year is about you, the readers, and the first order of business is to relay heartfelt thanks from the subject of my Dec. 19 column, a North Attleboro single mother going through tough times who was trying to provide a Merry Christmas for her three children - two sons, 11 and 5, and an 8-month-old daughter. The experience was humbling due to the overwhelming response to my column from well-meaning strangers eager to help this woman out. The effort paid off, as she reports receiving assistance, and she expressed sincere thanks in a Christmas night e-mail, from which I am excerpting here: "As I sit here this Christmas night after all the wonderful e-mails I got and look back on the last few weeks as Christmas approached worried about how my children's Christmas would be, my prayers to God were answered. "So many of you contacted (me) with wishes of prayers, help and friendship. I have known few good friends who would have ever done as much as these strangers, now friends, could have ever done. You helped me and my children by making their Christmas wishes come true. "I wish to thank Jo and Izzy, the Berards, Ann Thompson, Kristy, Laurie, Tamara and family, Hollie, Terri, Kristin, Helene, Andrea Odle, Tracy, Eve, Christy, who was in a car accident and unable to come to my home, but who I thank so very much for trying so hard. Please pray that she and her family will enjoy a great New Year. "(I also want to thank) Matthew and Pat, Alice and many others who contacted me offering anything from new games that they had put away to clothes that the kids could have. I can't tell you how very grateful I am. I am also very grateful to my friend, Kathleen Silvia, who also tried to help by being my Secret Santa. "There really are no words for how wonderful my Christmas was. Seeing the children open their gifts and the smiles on their faces was more than I could have asked for. I am blessed this holiday and my children are as well. I thank you from the bottom of my heart and my soul. I am blessed and thankful to all of you." I, too, am grateful to the people who reached out to this woman. May all of you have a healthy, happy 2008 - and may you find such generous offers from similarly selfless individuals if you're ever in need of assistance. About 'Afghans' In response to the column that I did about the saga of the painting "Afghans" by the Russian painter Alexandre Iacovleff, the future of which remains in limbo, North Attleboro School Superintendent Rick Smith sent me this e-mail to clarify the costs involved with storing the painting at Sotheby's auction house in New York, where it went shortly after the school department was informed that the painting could be worth more than $1 million and posed a security risk if left in town. "I am writing to clarify the costs associated with the storage of the painting at Sotheby's," Smith wrote. "The school department did pay to have the painting securely shipped to the auction house by a company that specializes in the transport of valuable artwork. Those costs were approximately $2,700, and would have been deducted from the sale price if the painting had been auctioned. When the painting was not auctioned in the spring of this year, we paid that bill. "The painting is insured under Sotheby's insurance policy at no cost to our school department. I have been advised that this will continue for as long as the painting remains at Sotheby's. If the painting is returned to North Attleboro, the cost will be similar to what was paid to deliver it to Sotheby's." Feehan memories The two-part story Dec. 16-17 on Bishop Feehan High School graduate Peter Tedeschi and the former CNN producer's current project - producing a documentary on an album of drawings depicting life at the Dachau concentration camp, elicited this response from Joan Drobnis of Feehan's foreign language department: "It was great to read your two-part article about Peter Tedeschi and Dachau. I have been at Feehan since 1979 and was Peter's Spanish teacher. I also took him on his first trip to Spain while he was a student at Feehan and have been so proud of how he has used Spanish in his career at CNN. Feehan has been a great place for me to work as a Jewish teacher and also for the significant amount of Jewish (and other non-Catholic) students who have attended over the past 30 plus years. This is a school that encourages and appreciates the sincere faith of students and faculty, no matter their religion. I know that Peter was the only Jewish student here at the time, but he did have me as his support." Thanks Joan, and Peter assures me that he was not trying to be the least bit critical of Feehan; he was only responding to my question about how life was when he attended Feehan before his 1981 graduation. LARRY KESSLER is a Sun Chronicle local news editor. Reach him at 508-236-0330 or at lkessler@thesunchronicle.com.