It's to the best of our knowledge, and the holiday season is here.

Family get-togethers, delicious food, and gifts.

Everyone likes gifts, right?

Gifts make slaves like whips make dogs.

In the Middle Ages, there was a thing you could buy called the papal indulgence.

And what that allowed you to do was live a bad life,

and in time before the buzzer went off, pay some money, and get guaranteed passage to heaven.

What a lot of these rich folks are doing in our time is a form of secular papal indulgence.

The truth is, giving can be complicated. And there are lots of ways it can go wrong. A gift can be too big. It can create a sense of obligation, which seems so curmudgeonly, because who could resent a gift?

I will have people run over and push the elevator button for me. But sitting in a wheelchair doesn't actually affect your ability to push an elevator button.

I'm Anne Strangerain Champs.

Today, giving gets complicated.

Wisconsin Public Radio.

It's to the best of our knowledge. I'm Anstrandchamps.

It's the holiday season, so chances are you're shopping for presents. The kids want new hoodies or Lego sets.

Your mom wants yet another gardening tool.

And then there are the gifts that people wish they didn't have to ask for.

So my dad, his name is Jay Costello.

He and my mom live in Heartland, Wisconsin, just outside of the Milwaukee area.

When he was 56, he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma.

This is Meg Castello, and this is the story of the year her family had to ask for a really big gift.

Survival rates for myeloma and people with his form of myeloma is three to five years.

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