Joy in a Gift Bag: Anonymous Present Delights La Grange Residents

Like a package delivered straight out of Wonderland, the bag was colorful and bright, emblazoned with a white rabbit and bearing a note with the instruction, “Read.” It was underlined for emphasis.

Vida Halsey and her friend Dottie Bury-Shaw found the gift Thursday while walking near Cossitt and 7th Avenue in La Grange.

Inside the bag, the two women found a book—Stories by Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio.

“To whom it may concern,” the note read. “Please leave the bag so we can gift other lucky persons. Thank you. #YOLO.”

Halsey and Bury-Shaw left both the bag and the book, the experience of finding it gift enough for them.

“We were delighted and touched by the random act of kindness,” Bury-Shaw wrote on her Facebook page.

Halsey wanted others in La Grange to be able to share in the enchantment they experienced upon stumbling across the anonymous gift by telling the story on Patch.

“Goodness knows that there is plenty of bad news to go around, therefore I wanted to share this beautiful gesture of goodwill with your readers,” she said.

The package was gone when I drove by 7th and Cossitt Sunday evening, but let’s start a game. Take a picture of what you find in the bag if you see it elsewhere in La Grange. Post it to our boards, along with a note about where you found it.

Share your discovery, pass a new gift along, and spread the random delight exponentially.