I HAD AN UNCLE named Frank Pecci. Big guy, looked like Jackie Gleason. He dressed up like Santa for the annual family Christmas gathering, and that was appropriate because Uncle Frank was the biggest man in the family and perhaps its most generous. He was large and full of largesse. A giver!

I'm not sure what he did for a living. All I know is, Uncle Frank showed up with canned hams a lot. He was always handing canned hams to relatives. Cans of paint, too. And bags of candy.

I think Uncle Frank believed some of the best things in life were free - especially if they fell off the back of a truck.

It's my suspicion that the late Frank Pecci was riding ghost the other day with Chris Muldowney. She's a social worker with Family & Children's Services of Central Maryland. Monday, she set out to deliver gifts to her neediest elderly clients.

"I was stopped at Cold Spring and Harford and a bread truck turned onto Cold Spring, doing a good clip, [and] a whole tray of bread fell off." The truck driver didn't notice the loss and kept going.

"I was sure traffic would crush the bread before the light changed," Muldowney says. "I sat at the light thinking about all the need in this town. Then the light changed, so I pulled into the Pit Stop parking lot. There was a lull in the traffic and I dragged the tray out of the road quite easily. It was a whole tray of undamaged seven-grain bread and potato rolls dated for sale after Christmas. It's hard to find bread any fresher, and it had almost fallen into my lap!

"I was sorry the truck driver's inventory might come up a little short. But the truck was long gone and, instead of becoming traffic-smashed crow-and-rodent food, that nice bread became a surprising addition to my Christmas deliveries. My clients, many who are used to getting so little, were delighted.

"You can add whatever cosmic interpretation to this that suits you, but I thought it was very lucky that the timing worked out the way it did."

Here's my cosmic interpretation - Uncle Frank lives!

Helpers at school

Sandy Loughlin, proud English teacher at Poly, has been keeping tabs on acts of charity at the city high school at Cold Spring Lane, and she sends this impressive year-end summary: "In just the past two months, students and staff have donated 84 units of blood; contributed or pledged $6,507.50 to Combined Charities of Central Maryland; assembled 80 Thanksgiving baskets (in each, a large turkey, dressing, cranberry sauce, green beans, corn, sweet potatoes, white potatoes, butter, rolls, bread, pie, gallon of milk, nuts, and macaroni and cheese) and brought them to churches; held a walk-a-thon to benefit the United Negro College Fund, raising $9,000; raised $1,109 through our holiday Mitten Tree Project for hats, mittens, coats, and other warm clothes for children at the Rosemont Elementary School; and collected three cars' full - front seat, back seat and trunk - of warm clothes for the Bea Gaddy Foundation."

You go, kids. High fives all around.

The giving spirit

And I heard this from a downtown doctor: "I drove home on Christmas Eve by Monument Street, and while I was sitting at the light, stuck in traffic, I noticed two little boys in Santa hats buying some gifts on the street. They were small, and with their daddy. They were smiling at me - since I was going nowhere fast - so I rolled the window down and asked them if they were being Santa, and they chimed together: 'We're buying a present for Momma and Grandma!' They were thrilled to be making a purchase out of the back of a van."

Gift from the heart

An elderly man, long addicted to drugs, walked up to his counselor two days before Christmas and extended a hand, and in the hand a plastic jewelry box shaped like a miniature grand piano - a gift for lending a sympathetic ear to the old guy during a year of counseling. The gift was straight out of a flea market - with a plastic ballerina popping up and twirling as soon as the old man opened the lid of the little piano. The counselor had been advised not to take gifts from clients. "But, young lady," he said, "if you don't take it, you're gonna make this old man cry." Recognizing the therapeutic qualities of giving, the counselor took the gift, understanding in the instant that nothing she received on Christmas could be more meaningful.