Widow left with four kids to take care of gets Christmas

BELLE GLADE, Fla. - A light hangs in the Rodriguez home and it's not a Christmas decoration.

It lights their one bedroom Belle Glade trailer.

"It's been really hard and I don't really know how to explain it," Susana Rodriguez said. "All I really have is my kids."

The Rodriguez household has seen better days.

Rodriguez and her four small children share two beds in a 300 square foot trailer.

"They're not comfortable and there's not enough space," she said.

There's space for a Christmas tree in the home, there just isn't money for one or money to buy presents to put under a tree.

"I feel bad because (the kids) ask for certain things and I can't provide them," Rodriguez said.

As a single parent she provides just enough to get by.

Just over a year ago, her husband, Efrain died in a car accident.

"He originally was the provider and I never worked until he passed away," she said.

Now the single mother works six days a week in a sod farm.

She brings home blistered hands and a little more than 7 dollars an hour.

Unfortunately it's not enough to fix the bathroom and the water heater to use the tub.

Instead, she heats the kids bath water on the stove.

"It's hard because it's more time consuming because I have to heat the water up for everyone including myself," she said.

You'd never know times were tough though by looking at the faces of her kids.

Maria, 8, Isaura, 4, Jose, 3, and Yaneli, 1, smile all the time.

The Lytal, Reiter, Smith, Ivey and Fronrath law firm came to make those smiles even bigger by bringing the family Christmas Sunday.

"Does anybody in this house like toys and candy," Attorney Lance Ivey said.

Spending more than $1,000 the firm filled the inside of the house with Christmas presents and did repair work.

One thing they brought was really special and that was a Christmas tree.

It's the first one the family has had in three years.  

"I didn't expect all of this," Rodriguez cried. "I'm happy for (my kids)."

She's happy Christmas came early, especially since it wasn't even going to come at all.