For the past six years, Tonia Turner of Spanish Fork, has spent much of the holiday season preparing and delivering stockings for families in need – all in memory of her sister who died of brain cancer.
Stacy Carrington-Jones was diagnosed in 2016 when she was 34 years old, after having a series of migraines. The official diagnosis was glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), which is an aggressive and fast-growing brain tumor that starts in the brain or spinal cord. Turner said that watching her sister endure what she did was extremely difficult to watch.
“She went through two years of treatment and two brain surgeries, and I went to every appointment with her and every treatment and it was really difficult and still is,” Turner said.
Stacy, who was a mother of three and stepmother to three, was just 36 years old when she passed away, and according to Turner, even during her sister’s hardest days, she was helping others.
“She was just the most giving person you would ever meet,” Turner said. “She would give her last penny to anyone; that’s just how she was. Even when she was sick after she was diagnosed, and she had no money and was really struggling, she somehow managed to buy Christmas for a single dad and his kids. It just blew me away, and it showed how incredibly giving and kind she was.”
Only a few months after her sister passed away, still steeped in grief – especially as the holiday season approached – Turner began thinking about her sister. She thought about all the things Stacy loved – one of them being stockings. She knew that she wanted to do something that would both carry on her sister’s legacy of giving, while also healing her own broken heart.
“I knew I wanted to carry her legacy of giving and love as much as I could,” Turner said. “Stacy’s favorite thing to do on Christmas day was open stocking because she just loved all the little things that come in them. Shortly after she passed away, I was driving home from work and it just hit me and I just started crying and I just felt her spirit really strong and just thought, ‘Oh, my gosh! You need to give back with stockings.”
The name, “Stacy’s Stockings” came to mind, and then the ideas just started coming. Turner knew that she wanted to care for those struggling with cancer, while also knowing that Stacy would help anyone she could. The first year that she did it was that same Christmas after her sister died, and she along with her husband and children were able to help 40 individuals and families. As the years have gone on, Stacy’s Stockings has grown.
“That first year we helped 40 individuals and families, which I thought was so cool,” she said. “Some of them were delivered to hospitals and some to people in our area that had cancer, and it’s grown so much. Last year, we were able to help about 250 people with cancer and then some in our area that were just struggling. We gave at least 40 or 50 stockings to little kids who wouldn’t have had anything for Christmas otherwise.”
Remembering how much her sister loved all the things inside of stockings at Christmas time, Turner said that she wanted to make sure that each item put inside the stockings was not only loved, but necessary.
“We’re really intentional about what we put in the stockings,” Turner said. “Most people we help are dealing with cancer, although we do help those who are just struggling, too, because that’s what Stacy would do. But as far as what we put in the stockings, we’re really intentional about it. If it’s for someone with cancer, of course, we’re going to look for things that would benefit them. If it’s a 50-year-old woman with cancer, we make sure we’re putting in nausea wristbands, a beanie, mints to help with the nausea and gloves. We add gift cards so that she doesn’t have to worry about cooking, and she can just go through a drive through or pick up food at a restaurant. We’re intentional about what we put in them and hope that it really makes them feel loved and cared about.”
“When we give a stocking to someone who has cancer, we donate to the whole family,” Turner continued. “Each member of the family gets a special stocking. We know it’s a family struggle, having someone in the family with cancer, so we want the whole family to know that we’re here and we are thinking about them and love them.”
Turner recalled a time last year when they were at the end of the season and had run out of stockings, when they heard of a family in need. She said that she thought of Stacy, and knew that she had to do what she could to make it work.
“I had a family reach out to me at the last minute and they had six kids and her husband was out of work,” Turner recalled. “We just pulled it together. My husband and I took $200 and got as much as we could. We make it work even if we’re running out of things. I don’t want to say no to anyone because like I said, that’s what my sister would do. She would make it work. She would figure it out somehow.”
Turner started out serving Spanish Fork and surrounding areas, but as word has spread, she said that she delivers all across the valley.
“It’s grown quite a bit and I spend my entire month of December and some of November when I’m not working, preparing and delivering stockings,” Turner said. “My husband drives me around for days and days and days in December delivering stockings every night all over Utah. It’s a big project and we’ve somehow been able to still do it with just me and my husband and my kids, but we spend all our time doing it and it’s so good. It gives us a way to really focus on what Christmas is all about and not get into the material aspect of it all.”
With all the good that Stacy’s Stockings is doing to help others, Turner said that it has also played a big role in healing her heart.
“I knew I needed to do something because I want my sister to still live in a way,” she said. “I also knew that I had to do something. I needed to put my heart into something because I was literally broken – so broken. My sister and I were absolutely best friends, seriously attached to the hip. She was like a mom to my kids, and I was to hers. I was very lost for a long time. Doing Stacy’s Stockings helps me to be able to heal that way, and to always carry her with me.”
For those who would like to help fill Stacy’s Stockings, Tonia Turner can be contacted through email at stacysstockings@gmail.com, or through text message at 385-223-6530. She also accepts Venmo donations @ToniaTurner-7.
