Presents ease family’s loss at Christmastime

Eric Leake

Monday, Dec. 27, 2004 | 11:23 a.m.

To see Matthew Misso riding his new electric go-cart during the weekend, you wouldn't know his Christmas was most notable for what he lost.

Matthew, 6, and his sister Kailey, 4, lost their cochlear hearing devices. The devices and the family's Christmas presents were in the family's van that was stolen out of the driveway early last week.

As she watched her three children -- including 8-year-old Elio -- play with their new toys in the driveway on the day after Christmas, Suzie Misso said the family's Christmas was a good one.

"But it's still sad. My children still can't hear," Misso said.

She thanked a community that she said impressed her with its generosity. One man brought his personal Nintendo video game system to give the kids. Anonymous workers from a hotel organized a gift drive on the family's behalf.

"They brought so much that my kids are going through it and they're going to have to donate some. There's only so much Play-Doh and Barbies that you can have," Misso said.

"We actually had the kids know that the presents weren't from us. That was a great lesson for them."

She said one man, who she only knew as Charlie, especially deserved thanks for making sure that Matthew got the go-cart at the top of his Christmas list and for trying to get the family new cochlear devices.

Misso said she filed a report with the police department but has yet to hear anything about what authorities are doing to try to recover the family's van -- a gold Plymouth Voyager that was not fully insured against theft. Her husband's boss has rented the family a car for 10 days.

Henderson Police could not be reached for comment this morning as the city's offices were closed. The city operates on a four-day work week schedule with offices closed on Fridays -- employees were given today off as Christmas fell on Saturday.

The Missos' van was full of the family's Christmas presents, but the main losses were the cochlear devices that were in the van, valued at $6,000 each, and necessary in conjunction with implants for the two youngest children to hear.

"I have to have hope that they'll find them. I'm hoping they'll just find the van ditched somewhere," Misso said. "I'm just taking it a day at a time because it's overwhelming."

On top of everything else, Elio's bicycle was stolen from the side of the house Christmas Eve. But it's return isn't the most important thing to him.

"I just want for them to get hearing aids back. Thanks for my mom and dad for getting me this," he said from atop a new electric mini-motorbike, "but I just want them to hear."

Matthew is using an old hearing device for now, though it works intermittently. Kailey is without any hearing aid.

Misso said Matthew is sometimes frustrated with not being able to hear and that he's doing his best to understand what happened.

"He says, 'Bad man still has,' " she said.

But the generosity -- and a couple of big items Santa had safely tucked away at a neighbor's house instead of the car -- did make the Misso's Christmas better.

"It's been really nice to see them laugh and be happy," Misso said. And she laughed herself watching her kids play.

A bank account was established to help the family. For more information, call Community One Federal Credit Union at 968-1219.

The missing vehicle is a gold 2000 Plymouth Grand Voyager. The minivan has a "Dirt Diva" sticker on the back, referring to the family's dirt bike-riding hobby, and a stick-figure family decal of two parents and three children.

Anyone with information about the stolen van or hearing devices can call police at 267-5000.