This Secret Santa lost her baby. Then her dad. Giving thousands of gifts helped her cope.

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Her father offered her advice she will never forget.

She was down, depressed and didn't know how she would get through the holiday season in 2014. 

Laura Timbario-Quering, who was an elementary school teacher on Chicago's South Side, had been pregnant. She lost the baby and couldn't imagine what pain Christmas would bring.

Her father told her, "Maybe, if you give to others ..."

Giving, John Timbario said, just might make her feel better. He had raised her in an atmosphere where volunteering and giving were a regular part of their lives. So she started a Secret Santa giveaway, and found out what she knew all along: Her father was right.

"He was big on giving," she said.

Nine years later, Timbario-Quering is a teacher at a Nashville elementary school, and she has brought her Secret Santa program from Chicago. She gave away more than 900 gifts to 150 first grade students with a huge help from Delta Air Line's Nashville Station.

And this year, she needs to give more than ever.

Her grief has returned.

'Best Christmas of my life': Nashville first-graders get surprise from Secret Santa

Nothing for Christmas

Timbario-Quering, 40, was on her way to being a lawyer, studying law at Michigan State University. She loved the theatrics of the courtroom, but she didn't love the idea of dealing with criminal justice as a career. So she dropped out.

She asked herself what makes her happy. Her answer was a no-brainer. Children.

She became a reading specialist in Chicago, bouncing from grade to grade in Chicago public schools.

In 2013, she gave her students an assignment to write about what they had received for Christmas. One boy wrote: Nothing. That broke her heart. She vowed, somehow, to help.

"I told myself we're not going to do this next year," Timbario-Quering said. "I'm going to do something."

The following year, she was planning to miss the Christmas season with a new baby, which was due Dec. 10. The miscarriage and her father's advice led her to her first Secret Santa giveaway. 

Her parents bought presents for six children in her class, and everything grew from there. That first year, she raised enough money to buy presents for 30 students. They had a Secret Santa Day at her school.

"It was my favorite day of the year," Timbario-Quering said.

She loved fulfilling wishes.

"I'm extra. I'm glittery," she said. "This is perfect for me."

The Secret Santa giveaway became bigger and bigger every year.

There were corporate sponsors in some years like Crate & Barrel, Kellogg's and a real estate company called Eleven Twenty Nine. The giveaway grew from just the students in her class to all the children in the school − then to all the students in several schools. Timbario-Quering found herself in charge of 1,000 gifts and 1,000 donors. It became a September to December project. One year, the students in her class got tickets to a Chicago Bulls game.

Each giveaway was accompanied by a party with an appearance from Santa. The giveaway became so big, it took two days of parties to give out all the gifts.

The COVID-19 years didn't slow her.

In 2020, she and her husband Daniel moved to Nashville but she continued to teach, remotely, students in Chicago. So she flew to Chicago at Christmastime and organized a drive-through gift giveaway.

In 2021, she got a job teaching first grade at Tusculum Elementary in Nashville.

"I said to myself, 'She is going to be a gold mine,'" Tusculum Principal Alison McMahon said.

At Christmas, she went back to Chicago and pulled off her eighth consecutive Secret Santa giveaway.

She was planning to bring the Secret Santa giveaway to Nashville this year.

Then her life got in the way.

Make him proud

On Sept. 26, 2022, Phyllis Timbario (Laura's mother) was making breakfast for her husband of 47 years. She called out. He didn't answer.

She found John Timbario dead in their Pittsburgh home. He was 71.

Timbario-Quering was crushed. "It changed everything," she said.

The school district in Chicago called to offer condolences and told her she didn't have to organize Secret Santa this year.

She had so much to do helping her mother get through the funeral. And, she was so grief-stricken, she decided to cancel any plans she had for Christmas.

She took time off from teaching and didn't return until late October.

That's when she called her mother.

"Your Dad was so proud of you," her mother reminded her. "Let's make him proud this year."

That's all she needed.

This year, Timbario-Quering decided, would be one for her father.

"She persevered," McMahon said. "Now to see it all together, I can't tell you how excited I am. Her father would be proud of her."

At incredible speed, she not only planned the Nashville Secret Santa giveaway, she also organized a two-day Chicago event (she flew there Dec. 19-20).

She got the help of Ignacio Borbolla, who works for Delta in Nashville. He convinced his office mates to help. Timbario-Quering's call for donations for Secret Santa gifts went wide on social media. The response was like a flood.

In the end, she got more than 900 gifts donated. That's more than six gifts per child − all individually wrapped by members of the Tusculum staff, employees from Delta and Timbario-Quering herself.

"Go big or go home," she said.

For the giveaway event, she wore a sequined Mrs. Santa Claus dress with black boots.

She walked into the gym before the students arrived. She stopped for a moment to think about her father, and remembered on her wedding day what he said to her, "Are you ready little girl?"

In the gym that morning she looked toward the sky and said, "Are you ready up there?"

The children loved opening their presents. There were more than a few tears of joy from the parents who were there filming with their phones.

Then, there was one last surprise. 

Two weeks before Christmas, she met with Walk Bike Nashville, a non-profit organization, and they arranged for the donation of a new bicycle for all 19 students in Timbario-Quering's class.

After the party for all the Tusculum first graders, Timbario-Quering presented the bikes to her students.

She thought about how this year wasn't even supposed to happen. And then she thought again about her father.

"My Dad must be doing something right up there," she said.

Reach Keith Sharon at ksharon@tennessean.com.