Photos From Jessie Tendayi
CHICAGO (WBBM) — A cafeteria worker at Advocate Trinity Hospital on Chicago’s South Side spent a year saving her money, and today she gave it away – in the form of gifts to needy children at the hospital.
Every paycheck for the past year, 52-year-old Jessie Tendayi had money taken out to put into savings.
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And it wasn’t a little, she says.
“Not a little bit. No, a lot.”
Tendayi is a cafeteria worker at Advocate Trinity Hospital, and she spent her savings on presents. She spent part of the day giving them out: more than 200 educational toys and games to needy children in the hospital, inpatients or outpatients.
“The one who touched my heart was the baby,” she said. “She was kind of asleep and I said, ‘Hi, Angel.’ And then she woke up and looked at me. She just looked at me and I felt like I just did something which this baby needed for that time.”
Tendayi is originally from Zimbabwe and moved to Chicago 16 years ago.
She has no children of her own, but she has a husband and other family in the area.
Last year was her first year giving toys to children at the hospital – and she says she does not plan to stop.
