Secret Santa has a surprise for a mother, father, son and daughter who have all experienced terrible events

A local Secret Santa is giving $1 million to deserving people in eastern Idaho this holiday season, and the East Idaho News elves are helping.

From now until the end of the year we will be posting a Secret Santa surprise every day and today we are visiting a teacher named Susan.

In July, she went to the hospital for a procedure and the doctor found a huge mass. Susan had to undergo emergency surgery to remove nine centimeters of her colon. When she woke up, Susan had no idea what had happened. It turned out not to be cancer; however, recovery from the surgery was extremely difficult.

A few weeks later, Susan’s husband Bryce was working in Island Park and fell. He was taken by ambulance to EIRMC and discovered he had broken five vertebrates in his neck, ribs and bones in his back. His recovery has been very painful. This means that he will no longer be able to work or fulfill his military duties during the military service for an unknown period of time.

Susan is now back to work as a teacher for the Madison School District. A few weeks after the fall, their eldest son, on a mission in Africa, developed a blood infection that resulted in sepsis. This was terrifying because they couldn’t see him or help him. Fortunately he has recovered.

Finally, a few weeks ago, their daughter was playing volleyball. She went up to spike the ball and upon landing her knee gave out. She tore her meniscus, ACL and MCL. She will have surgery next week.

Susan and her family are strong people who try to stay positive. They always tell people they’re good and someone out there has it worse.

Secret Santa asked the East Idaho News elves to track down Susan and surprise her with a Christmas gift. Watch the video in the player above!