A teenager helping raise 5 siblings after her mother’s death is given a big surprise from Secret Santa

The EastIdahoNews.com team is busy this holiday season helping a local man gift $1 million to deserving people in eastern Idaho. Secret Santa is a real person who wants to remain anonymous and hopes to bless as many individuals in our community as he can.

We receive Secret Santa nominations from people of all ages, including this teenager who wanted us to know about her best friend:

Emily and I have been friends since 3rd grade. That is about five years because we are in 8th grade now. She is 13 years old and has gone through a lot over the past year. Her grandma died from cancer when she was just a few years old and her fear has been that her mom would die of cancer. Let’s just say that nightmare came true.

About one year ago, Emily’s mom became really sick and was in and out of the hospital while the doctors struggled to figure out what was wrong with her. She was soon diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer. A few short months later, on Nov. 13, 2020, Emily’s mom passed away exactly one week and one day before her birthday. She left behind her 6 young kids.

Even before her mom died, Emily acted like a mom to her siblings but even more since her passing. She is the sweetest person I’ve met.

Secret Santa wanted to surprise Emily with some early Christmas gifts and asked the East Idaho News elves to pay her a visit. Watch the video above to see the surprise!