This year Galineau decided to donate to Toy for Joy in memory not only of his wife, but of others he has lost.
BRIMFIELD – Leo Gelineau says he sent in his donation to Toy for Joy as a way of saying “Merry Christmas” to his wife, Linda.
He was 21 when he married her. She was the same age.
They met in high school. “Tantasqua High School in Sturbridge,” said Gelineau. “I lived in Holland and she lived in Brimfield.”
“She was just a special girl. Right away I knew she was the one.”
Linda Gelineau died a year ago on Dec. 1. The couple had been married for 46 years. He feels she is still close to him.
“It’s very rough, but I’m getting through,” he said, the day before the anniversary of Linda’s passing. “I just keeping going, doing this and that.”
Gelineau is 68, and has been retired for four years. He used to repair tractor-trailers for “the best company in the world, R.M. Sullivan.”
He and his wife had no children, though Gelineau still has family in his two brothers.
This year he decided to donate to Toy for Joy in memory not only of his wife, but of others he has lost, including his parents, Ernestine and Leo Gelineau Sr., and his sister Carol Bradway.
He also gave in memory of Linda’s mother, Alma Howlett, who died just a few months before her daughter did.
The three of them – Leo, Linda and Alma – had planned an outing to a casino last year, but it never happened.
So that’s what Gelineau is planning to do for Christmas this year. He is going to Mohegan Sun casino in Connecticut.
When asked what he would do if he won a big pot of money, he said he would donate some of it to churches and kids. As for the rest of it, he doesn’t know what he would do with it.
“The only thing that would make me happy,” he said, “was if I had my wife back.”
For more information, call (413) 733-7581. To make a contribution to the Toy for Joy fund, write: Toy for Joy, P.O. Box 3007, Springfield 01102. Contributions may also be dropped off with the coupon at The Republican, 1860 Main St., Springfield, weekdays between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. until Dec. 21.
Here’s a list of the latest contributors:
- Merry Christmas to all from Liz and Steve, $200
- In memory of our beloved Beth Alissa, forever remembered, $25
- God bless everyone, $25
- Richard, $500
- In memory of Chiara and Renzo Vedany, $20
- In loving memory of Dottie Pelter, love Mom, $25
- Luke and Caleigh wish everyone a Merry Christmas, $50
- For Chuck, $25
- Merry Christmas to all the children from Jeanne, $10
- The Parish family, $100
- For Julia, $25
- Happy Holidays to all from Shirley and Philip, $5
- Memory of Marilyn Urdzela, $15
- In memory of my Mom Barbara Kupec, $25
- Wendy, $50
- In memory of Fred and Eleanor Albano and Albert and Marie Laplante from Paul and Jan Laplante, $25
- Anonymous, $10
- Sunny, $50
- In memory of Kathleen and Maurice Murphy, $20
- Giving thanks for 7 healthy and happy grandchildren, Courtney, Nick, Jacob, Joshua, KinCaed, Angelina and Samuel from Papa and Grammy, $25
- In memory of Linda Gelineau from husband Leo, $10
- In memory of Alma Howlett from Leo, $10
- In memory of Ernestine Gelineau from Leo, $10
- In memory of Father Leo Gelineau Sr. from Leo, $10
- In memory of Carol Bradway from Leo, $10
- For the care from the East Longmeadow Skilled Nursing Center from Eleanor Pianowski, $50
- Hi, $11
- For the kids, Geography Gerry, $5
- Remembering Griffin Keough, $100
RECEIVED: $1,446
TOTAL TO DATE: $7,306
STILL NEEDED: $142,694