NORTHAMPTON – Amalia FourHawks hadn’t seen her 85-year-old husband Leonard FourHawks for more than nine months since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March. Speaking through a plexiglass window at the VA Medical Center in Leeds just a few weeks ago, the two had a lot of catching up to do despite daily phone calls.
One thing her husband was adamant about was making sure that they made their annual donation to the Sidney F. Smith Toy Fund in the memory of Amalia’s brother Mark Neal, a Hatfield resident, father and locksmith who died of cancer in November 2014 at the age of 60.
“It was after his passing and during his funeral that people were coming to the family and saying that they had such loving thoughts of him because he would do things like drop off a bag of groceries on someone’s steps,” Amalia recalled. “One older woman came to us and told us about how she’d been so worried about a fence rail that had been broken and she couldn’t physically manage the work on it. And she got up one morning and it was done. And it was my brother. So many people kept telling us these wonderful stories. We didn’t really know that he did that kind of thing.”
Though Leonard and Neal weren’t close friends, he told Amalia that he believed it was important, even during a difficult year with a pandemic still raging, to honor Neal’s legacy, she said. She and her husband donated $100 to the toy fund, while her father Alton Neal (who lives with her in Florence) contributed $100 as well.
Amalia described her brother Mark as having a slightly gruff exterior at times, but overall being kind-hearted. It wasn’t until after his death in which she learned that besides helping people in his neighborhood and community, he had also donated money on a regular basis to the Sidney F. Smith Toy Fund and to the Northampton Survival Center.
“This is a man who didn’t have a whole lot,” she added. “But it was in his heart that he had more than other people. And so, it was only right to share.”
Mark Neal worked as a locksmith at Foster and Farrar True Value hardware store on King Street in Northampton for more than a decade. Besides his job, Neal was a mentor to people as a recovering alcoholic at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.
“It was very important to him because he thought he had a role in inspiring other people,” Amalia said. “He was a conundrum. He really was an enigma as far as personality because what you saw one day, you wouldn’t see the next day. But underneath, you knew he was going to go the extra yard for you.”
The family had been contributing to the toy fund and other charities every year around the holidays before Mark died, but after realizing more about him, they’ve made it an annual tradition to “make sure that the spirit of generosity still lives,” Amalia said.
Amalia said if her brother Mark knew that the family was honoring his legacy by donating to the toy fund, he’d probably be a little embarrassed. She said he was someone who was extremely humble to the point where not even his own family knew about his charitable acts.
“Our spirit of Christmas is making sure that other people have Christmas,” she added. “And that’s our memory of my brother.”
Named after a former business manager at the Gazette, the toy fund began in 1933 to help families in need during the Depression. Today, the fund distributes vouchers worth $40 to families for each child from age 1 to 14. Eligible families must live in any Hampshire County community except Ware, in the southern Franklin County towns of Deerfield, Sunderland, Whately, Shutesbury, and Leverett, or in Holyoke in Hampden County.
18 Degrees Family Services for Western Massachusetts at 59 Interstate Drive in West Springfield verifies families’ eligibility and the Gazette covers costs associated with the drive, freeing all donations to fund the vouchers.
The following stores are accepting the vouchers this year: A2Z Science and Learning Store, 57 King St., Northampton; Blue Marble/Little Blue, 150 Main St., Level 1, Northampton: Deals & Steals, 1 Pearl St., Northampton; High Five Books, 141 N. Main St., Florence; The Toy Box, 201 N. Pleasant St., Amherst; Once Upon A Child,1458 Riverdale St., West Springfield; Sam’s Outdoor Outfitters, 227 Russell St., Hadley; Odyssey Bookshop, 9 College St., Village Commons, South Hadley; The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, 125 W. Bay Road, Amherst; World Eye Bookshop & Magical Child Toy Store, 134 Main St., Greenfield; Holyoke Sporting Goods Co., 1584 Dwight St. No. 1, Holyoke.
Donations to the Toy Fund may be mailed to the Daily Hampshire Gazette, P.O. Box 299, Northampton, MA, 01061, or made through Gazettenet at www.gazettenet.com. Checks should be made payable to the Sidney F. Smith Toy Fund.
Chris Goudreau can be reached at cgoudreau@gazettenet.com.