If Cathy Sedillo kept a Christmas gift list, it would read like the local white pages.

The gifts are humble — a beaming smile and a warm holiday greeting — but everyone, and we mean everyone, who passes through the doors of the Keeaumoku Street Sam’s Club gets one.

“I just want everyone who comes to feel appreciated and welcome,” says Sedillo, 66. “I don’t let anybody slip by. I want to be able to wish every person a merry Christmas and let them know that they’re special.”

The spirit of the season animates Sedillo like nothing else, but her devotion to her job as store greeter owes as much to family tradition as it does to seasonal inspiration.

Sedillo was born in New Mexico and raised in San Bernardino, Calif. She vividly recalls the way her father would wake early every weekday to catch a ride to his job as a landscaper, traveling four hours each way just for the opportunity to earn money for the family. She recalls with equal clarity the sacrifices her mother made to keep a safe, stable home for her and her two siblings.

Sedillo got married at 15 and welcomed the first of her three children later that year. To help support her growing family, she worked as a custodian for the San Bernardino Medical Center, eventually rising to a managerial post.

By 34 Sedillo was a widow, her husband, David, murdered in circumstances that left her even more convinced of the necessity of following a path of hard work and religious faith. Left with three teenage children to support, Sedillo worked as many hours as she could, eventually picking up shifts at the local Sam’s Club.

In 1998 Sedillo moved to Hawaii to be closer to her sister, Ester, who had married and settled in Honolulu. She quickly learned the first reality of life as a Hawaii resident.

“If you want to live here, you have to work for it,” Sedillo says. “It’s not cheap, but you do what you have to do.”

For Sedillo that meant working 12-hour shifts at the Swissport International air cargo service and squeezing in hours at two other part-time gigs, including a stocking job at Sam’s Club. Her example left an impression on her children, who have each found and kept gainful employment.

Through it all, Sedillo made sure she reserved time to attend services at Cedar Assembly of God, where she has been active in helping homeless people become self-sufficient.

“My father used to tell us, ‘It’s not what you do, it’s what you do well that counts,’” Sedillo says. “I try to share that with the people I help. The goal is to help them transition to working and being self-sustaining.”

Now a grandmother of seven and great-grandmother of three, Sedillo continues to practice what she preaches.

“People ask me where I get the energy,” Sedillo says. “To me the answer is simple: Jesus.”

Reach Michael Tsai at mtsai@staradvertiser.com.