The Tierney Family Secret Santa Fund continues to spread the faith, love and generous Christmas cheer of the late Niceville couple, Mike and Cynthia Tierney.
Mike was a doctor at Eglin Air Force Base Hospital and Cynthia was his nurse, said family friend Dr. Rich Hughes, who worked with them at Eglin and now is an ER doctor at Twin Cities Hospital in Niceville.
Mike died in November 2013 at age 59 after battling colon cancer, and Cynthia passed away at age 52 in October 2014.
The Tierneys did not have children, Hughes said Thursday. For several years before Mike died, the couple dressed up as Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus and went to local Walmart stores and the old Kmart in Fort Walton Beach, where they anonymously paid people’s layaways down to 1 cent apiece, Hughes said.