There are probably just a handful of words used more frequently in the English language than “thank you.” Thank you is said so often, and sometimes not enough, that it loses its meaning. It is an expression of one’s gratitude towards another. I probably say thank you way too much. If you hold a door open for me, I will say, “Thank you. I hope you have a good day.” It is a reflex for me.

Before Thanksgiving, the staff at The Minot Daily News had a challenge laid out for them. We had a contest. For every full page of advertising sold into our Wednesday, November 22, 2023, newspaper for Thanksgiving, we donated $99 to the Minot Area Men’s Winter Refuge. We had 52 businesses participate, selling 30 full-page ads and donating $2,970 to the refuge. To those businesses that participated that made this donation possible, thank you.

The executive director of the Minot Area Men’s Winter Refuge, Mike Zimmer, shared that the donation will keep food at the refuge for close to two months. The money stretches that far between the donation and the donated meals throughout the week. The refuge receives donated meals from around the community and area food banks to help keep men in the shelter fed.

There are a litany of great causes in the Minot area — far too many to list and far too many to list what good they do for the community. However, there is a very personal reason why I picked the Minot Area Men’s Winter Refuge.

This story involves my lovely wife, and I did get permission to write about it. She had a very close relationship with one of her uncles. The first time I met him, he had her sit down on a stool at her grandparents’ house and braid her hair as we talked. He loved his niece unconditionally. He welcomed me into the family with open arms.

They lost touch with each other about 10 years ago. Unfortunately, eight years ago, he passed away. Her uncle was a sous and pastry chef. My wife’s family didn’t find out he had passed away until the shelter he was living in started cleaning out his things and found Jodi’s mom’s cell phone number written on a page in a book. He didn’t write a name. It was just a phone number. The staff at the shelter called it on a whim, hoping to reach someone. It is hard news to learn from what was an anonymous phone call. We, Jodi, her parents, and I, traveled the 60 miles to clean out his personal effects from his room at the shelter. That unconditional love led to one of the most heartbreaking days of my wife’s life and, in association, mine.

While we cleaned out his belongings, we took things downstairs to a common area for others living in the shelter to keep if they had a use for them. Of course, everyone there was interested in knowing who we were and what we were doing there. Once we mentioned my wife’s uncle’s name, they looked at my wife and said, “You must be Jodi. David talked about you all the time and how much you meant to him.” My wife is very attractive and six feet tall. I outkicked my coverage, marrying her. I am pretty sure she received hugs from everyone who lived in that shelter. With each hug, I could see her heartbreak. She still struggles with tears when we talk about it. When I asked for permission to write this column, she teared up. He was an amazing man who loved his niece unconditionally. Holy moly, could that man make pastries.

We knew what city he was living in, but it was a city of roughly 100,000 people at the time. We searched for him every time we were in town. We stopped at the restaurant where he had worked for years. It had closed six months earlier due to a fire. I don’t believe in irony, but by happenstance, the shelter he lived in was two blocks north, and we had no idea.

My wife and I are very private people. Her agreement allowing me to write a column about this is a big deal. Candidly, it is the driving reason why we donated to the Minot Area Men’s Winter Refuge this year. If such a place existed in Erie, Pennsylvania, this story may have had a different ending.

Picking one charity to donate to is nearly impossible; there are many worthwhile choices in the Ward County area. However, this year is for Jodi’s Uncle David. We love you. Thank you to all the businesses that participated this year and made this donation possible.

To learn more about the Minot Area Men’s Winter Refuge, go to: www.menswinterrefuge.com/.