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Boy surprises 90-year-old man with late wife’s Christmas cookies

By Julia Avery

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    KIRKWOOD, Missouri (KMOV) — While some of us picked up TikTok dances and Netflix addictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, 10-year-old Sam Wissmann picked up baking.

“We made cookies, helped with dinner a lot,” Sam said.

When asked what his favorite thing to bake is, he said snickerdoodles, which just happens to be the cookie that means a lot to 90-year-old Jim in Kirkwood. Jim’s wife died this year. This is his first Christmas without her. She always made him snickerdoodles for Christmas.

Jim asked his neighbor, Susie, for a snickerdoodle recipe to carry on her tradition himself. Susie found something even better on a Kirkwood Facebook page. A 10-year-old who loves to bake snickerdoodles, Wissmann, a complete stranger.

“Of course, this is the one cookie he loves to make so it was a no brainer [Sam would bake him the cookies],” Sam’s mom Mary Wissmann said.

Sam jumped at the opportunity and made a large batch of Snickerdoodles delivered with a card attached.

“I said, ‘My name is Sam, I’m 10 years old, I enjoy making snickerdoodles, I hope you enjoy them.” Sam said.

According to Susie, the card and cookies brought a tear to Jim’s eye.

“He just seemed sad because his wife had died and she always made snickerdoodles, and I’ve always made them, so I figured he would like it and it would be a good memory instead of a bad one.”

Sam said he would be happy to make this a Christmas tradition.

“Oh, we will do this anytime,” Mary said. Sam will make them next week if he wanted more.”

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