Mary Hardge is single, living on disability and raising five grandchildren who, she says, were left in her care.

Hardge, 59, believes she is blessed, even if the family is barely scraping by on $730 a month.

This is God's way of giving her a second chance, she says.

"I'm not losing any of these kids to foster care. ... I'm going to make it right this time. These are going to be good, productive citizens because Grandma has learned her lessons."

Her struggle to make ends meet is an issue being faced by grandmothers across Mecklenburg County, based on the pleas for help from the Salvation Army's Christmas Bureau.

Some 7,000 families registered this year to get free Christmas gifts from the bureau, and agency officials say they spotted a trend of guardians raising someone else's kids, including women raising their great-grandkids.

Hardge says the sacrifices are many, but so are the rewards.

The grandkids range in age from 5 to 15 (three girls and two boys), and she says they're all characters, including the 5-year-old, who pretends she's Elly May Clampett from the "Beverly Hillbillies," and a 6-year-old who parades around like she's Princess Diana.

They all have Christmas lists, but their wants tend to be simple stuff: a football for one, skateboard for another and games for everybody.

Hardge hopes the Christmas Bureau can help make some of those wishes come true, but she believes there will be no complaints.

The kids know they're lucky, she says.

And she feels lucky, too, even after two heart attacks, back surgery and a bout with cancer.

Yes, there are days when it feels like all she does is cook, clean and drive kids to ball games in her '95 Toyota.

But sour moods change fast when her 9-year-old boy swears he's going to buy Grandma a house when he gets rich and a granddaughter acts like she's a princess.

"When you are put in the predicament of having to raise your grandkids, you have to find a way to laugh and be grateful to God," Hardge says.

"I'm a happy grandmother. Not a sad one."