A Time For Miracles

For the holiday season, these stories convey a spirit worth cherishing

Toys to the World

By Amy Wang FROM THE WASHINGTON POST

THE SPOT OF red was what first caught Randy Heiss’s attention on December 16, 2018. He was hiking the remote expanse of land behind his ranch in Patagonia, Arizona, a town near the U.S.-Mexico border, and draped against the sacaton grass was a balloon—or at least the tattered remnants of one. Heiss walked toward it with his dog, Feliz, thinking he should pick up the latex pieces and throw them away.

That’s when he noticed the balloon’s string was attached to a piece of paper.

“Dayami,” it read on one side, in a child’s writing. A hand-drawn bow accompanied the word.

Heiss flipped the paper over. It was a numbered list, all in Spanish. “My Spanish isn’t very good, but I could see it was a Christmas list,” he said.

Heiss was charmed. He suspected that a child had tried to send Santa Claus a Christmas wish list by balloon, something he used to do himself when he was a kid. Nobody had ever returned the letters Heiss had sent aloft, but he wondered whether he couldn’t find the girl who had sent this one.

It would be difficult, but Heiss had a few clues. About 20 miles to the southwest, just across the border, was the city of Nogales, Mexico, with a population of about a quarter million.

“Based on the prevailing wind, I was pretty doggone sure that’s where it came from,” he said.

Heiss brought the note home to his wife, who is fluent in Spanish and helped him translate the list. They determined that Dayami, probably a girl, had asked for an Enchantimals doll, an Enchantimals dollhouse, clothes, art supplies, and slime, among other things.

Heiss then posted about his quest on Facebook, attaching photos, hoping some of his friends in Nogales might know the girl’s family.