Trying to see the good in people is one lesson this mother of two realized was one of the best “gifts” she would ever receive.
Patty Hitchcock of Bainbridge explains her life has had its trials and tribulations and through it all she found herself, found out who she wanted to be and what kind of mother she was.
Hitchcock grew up one of five children in Queens. She and her family moved north before her senior year and she graduated from Unatego high school. At age 16, Hitchcock began what turned into her life-long career thus far at the Cullman Center in Sidney. By 1996, Hitchcock was married and soon after began to raise a family.
Patty’s life would be forever changed in 2003 when her husband feel ill, was hospitalized, and never returned home. Her children were young and she’d never thought she would be raising them alone. “My life did a complete 360 and I didn’t know what I was going to do,” she said, “It was Christmas and I didn’t know how I was going to get them gifts and juggle everything else.”
In December the same year, Hitchcock explains she stumbled across the Toys for Tots train, a locomotive filled with toys for children and accompanied by United States Marines and Santa. The train travels through Bainbridge and makes the deliveries for children in Chenango County. Hitchcock says the train was a sign. She walked to the train and began to tell her story of what she had been going through to one of the Marines aboard. “He saw me, he saw my pain,” she said. As Patty walked away from the train she was called back by the Marine and as she turned she saw that they were taking a bike from down to give to her son. “It was so much more than a bike,” she says. “It represented so much more than a simple gift.”
Hitchcock explains that as she looked at what they had given her, she was in awe of who they were, what they did for her and what they do for others. “It gave me the courage to believe that there are good people out there, not everything was bad and that I had the courage to do something wonderful and care for my children,” said Hitchcock.
