Mealey’s delivers
the holiday cheer

By Diane Prokop
Times Staff Writer

The year 2007 went out a lot better than it started for the Rubin family of Rhawnhurst.
Aubrey Rubin, a sixth-grader at MaST Community Charter School, wanted to bring smiles back to her parents’ faces and had written a letter entering them in the Mealey’s Furniture annual holiday giveaway.
The 12-year-old wrote that her mom and dad "have been sad for a long time, and I would like to bring some happiness into our family during the holidays."
The family has had a rough time of it lately.
Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis before he was eligible for health insurance at a new job, Jeffrey Rubin, his wife Kristin and their four children had to leave their Modena Park home of six years when finances forced foreclosure.
"We hadn’t had too much to smile about," said Jeffrey Rubin.
Since Rubin’s first attack in May 2006, the auto-immune disease that affects the central nervous system progressed quickly, first attacking his legs. Today his vision and hearing go in and out on a daily basis. He’s confined to a wheelchair, experiences about 90-percent numbness in his hands, and spends his days in pain.
In addition to his health and his home, Rubin also lost his job, his father and the family car.
"It’s so rotten to lose everything that you worked for," Rubin said. "I hadn’t done anything wrong. I got sick. It’s like, wow!"
It was much more of a good wow — a great wow — however, when Mealey’s delivered a late Christmas present to the family’s Hartel Avenue home on Friday.
Delivery men carried in a five-piece living room set; a dining room set with a table, six chairs (a few decorated with big red bows), a buffet and hutch; and a seven-piece bedroom set for Josh, who had been sleeping on an air mattress.
The family picked out the furniture at the Mealey’s Oxford Valley location the day before. The retailer was going to give Josh, 10, a queen bedroom set, but he wanted bunk beds since that’s what his sisters have.
"We went back, and they showed me all this stuff. It’s really, really exciting," he said.
Josh not only got his loft bed and mattress, but a built-in desk, a bureau and a desk chair.
His big sister Aubrey didn’t get a new bedroom set, but her pale green eyes danced with excitement as the delivery men carried the furniture into her house.
"It’s amazing. I finally get to see them be happy. Everyone has a smile on their face because we won this," Aubrey said.
Kristin Rubin, who works as a teacher’s aide at her daughter’s school, didn’t know anything about her daughter’s letter to Mealey’s — one of more than 30 nominating her family for the seventh annual holiday giveaway — until Kevin Mealey called her the day after Christmas. Many of the letters were from teachers at MaST.
"I never got to read (Aubrey’s) letter. All I know is that she asked for a Christmas wish," Kristin Rubin said. "Her wish came true."
According to Aubrey, her mom started crying when she found out. Her dad was just amazed.
"I didn’t even believe it," she said.
More than 2,000 letters were submitted to the annual contest offering a free houseful of furniture to honor the spirit of the holiday season.
Kevin Mealey was also on hand to congratulate the family.
"We had such a lot of confidence in our decision. It wasn’t a writing campaign to win furniture but personal letters about a deserving family," Mealey said.
"(Everyone) couldn’t say enough nice things about the family," said Mealey’s buyer Carol Baj. "There were a lot of sad stories, but we kept going back to them."
She reflected on how great it is for the 12-year-old to be able to do this for her family.
"Aubrey started it all. One person can make a difference," Baj said.
Jeffrey Rubin couldn’t put into words how proud he and his wife are of their daughter.
"I guess now I’m going to have to give her an allowance," he said. ••
Reporter Diane Prokop can be reached at 215-354-3036 or dprokop@phillynews.com