A secret Santa has been on a mission since Christmas Eve to bring gifts to each of the Island’s mothers who have lost a son to guns — and he is now halfway through his list.

The Parks Department worker told The Royal Gazette he’d been moved by the sight of old social spots along St Monica’s Road devoid of their regulars, who have been driven away by the fear of violence.

“The idea came to me early in the year — I said I would start saving money for it — but when it really hit me was two weeks before Christmas. I left work and turned up by St Monica’s. I passed the corner where people used to hang out and it was empty. Like all the love was gone. That was what came to me. A tear rolled down my face.”

He added: “There are no sides for me; I’m on everybody’s side. I go all over the Island and through all walks of life. But we have got people hating and they don’t even know why. In this time we have to pull up our socks and give thanks that we have got life. And life is not meant to be taken.”

With his own children grown up and his mother taken care of for Christmas, the Parks employee decided to tally up the list of Bermudian mothers whose sons had been gunned down over the last ten years.

“I don’t go through any struggle like most people,” he said. “All I do is work hard and take care of my mother.”

He decided to deliver a $100 MarketPlace voucher to each one of the 29 bereaved.

For Marsha Jones, whose 20-year-old son Shaundae Jones was shot and killed in 2003, the unexpected Christmas Eve visit from somebody she didn’t even know was “fantastic — I told him he was my personal Santa Claus”.

“I had some family visiting me from the States, and when I got home from work that evening they told me someone had kept calling for me. I got in touch with him and he came right up on his bike.

“He said he’d decided not to buy any Christmas presents this year, but to give something to each mother. And he was ticking us off his list of names, just like Santa Claus. He said the ones he didn’t get to over the holidays he was going to try and find after Christmas.”

Ms Jones added: “It really made me feel there are still good people in this world. It was really, really enlightening.”

Her mysterious benefactor, who told The Royal Gazette he wanted to go by the alias of Tim Shadow to avoid attracting undue attention, told her he was looking for the next person on the list — Shahidah Abdur-Rahim.

Ms Abdur-Rahim’s son Aquil Richardson was shot dead on Boxing Day, 2007, while he sat on a wall in Camp Hill, Southampton.

Mr Richardson had been present at the scene of Mr Jones’ murder outside a Dockyard nightclub, and the two mothers remained friends.

Ms Jones made the call, telling Ms Abdur-Rahim: “We’ve got a Santa Claus, and he’s right here in my house.”

Not surprisingly, it took a while to figure out what was actually happening.

“He had actually gone to where I used to live, looking for me,” Ms Abdur-Rahim said. “I got this call on Christmas Eve and then he came around to see me. He said he had about 15 vouchers still to give out. I asked him what organisation he was from, and he said he was just doing it on his own.

“I didn’t know him at all. We had a conversation and he said he’d known my son. I really appreciated it — I thought it was a good random act of kindness.”

The anonymous altruist said he’d taken a break over Christmas.

“I’ve still got 14 more to do. I figured I’d let everybody rest over the holidays. I want to give to them before the end of the month.”

He said the reactions he’d received had been universally good.

“They were all happy, all thankful. It was all good. Just pure love. And it hasn’t been anything hard for me — I saved up all year.”

Although the man said he’d known many of the people whose lives were claimed in the Island’s ongoing cycle of gang-fuelled shootings, he said it was important to stress that he had no affiliation with any particular neighbourhood in Bermuda.

“I am not taking anyone’s side. It’s all Bermuda.”