The sappy Christmas movies they put on TV starting around now are actually a kind I'd like to see more often. I don't need miracles or angel crap, just examples of unexpected generosity that help people out of jams.

One just last night was about a young woman who moved out to a very small town when her abusive husband left her with several kids, one of whom was not even hers. She starts working as a waitress in a diner and the usual gruff people start turning out to be very kind.

One financial mess after another hits her, including car breakdowns, no place to live, etc., but the diner customers, owner, and co-workers -- and in fact the entire town, mostly through a church, bail her out so completely that it strains believitude.

However, it sounds very much like the experiences of a friend of mine years ago. She and her new baby and 2 other kids had driven out across the state to visit her fiance, who was training to become a guard at the state prison. He was in a sort of boot camp and so she had to stay at a motel. The plan was that the whole family was going to move out to that area.

On the way her car broke down, she'd been robbed at a rest stop and hadn't discovered her loss until she found she didn't even have money to pay for breakfast at the diner -- where she and the kids were sitting while the car was being looked at. The mechanic came into the diner to discuss it with her, and everyone there sort of became part of it. Small town or something, I guess.

She told him about her money -- namely, that she had only the few bucks in her pocket, no credit. The people there apparently discussed it while she took the kids back to the motel room. When she returned, they'd taken up a collection for her, and the mechanic suddenly found the repairs equalled just a small part of that collected money... and they'd bought food for her to take on the rest of her trip as well.

I love stories like that.