Toni Andreola doesn't know if her injured husband will be able to come home for Christmas, but she knows there's still good in the world. Andreola and her two teenage daughters have had some rough times since Nov. 20, when two youths savagely attacked Anthony Andreola in the early morning and left him for dead beside a bank machine in Burnaby. But they got a surprise Wednesday that boosted their spirits -- a donation of cash from prisoners at the Ferndale minimum-security prison. "Obviously, there's still love in the world, and they're very compassionate," she said after learning about the jailhouse fundraising. "Just because they've done something wrong once doesn't mean they don't have a heart for other people." It was a wrenching story and photograph of Anthony, battered and unconscious in his hospital bed, in The Vancouver Sun on Dec. 9 that inspired Ferndale prisoner Nicholas Ribic to do something for the family. "He's just a working guy who works at Costco, and that something this terrible happened to him kind of struck a chord," Ribic said Wednesday in a telephone interview. He figured some extra money would help the family while Anthony was unable to work, but it went further than that; he and the other prisoners wanted to let Toni and her daughters know they felt compassion for the family's turmoil and pain. As of Wednesday, the fund was up to $304, which is pretty impressive, given that prisoners can only earn between $1 and $6.90 a day in prison. "Many of them were giving as much as five or even $10, which for some guys is a day or two days' wages," he said. The prisoners hope the money will be helpful, but "More importantly, the family should know that we're thinking of them, and we know how hard this must be for them," Ribic said. Anthony has been in the G.F. Strong rehabilitation centre for a week, and Toni says he has made good physical progress. "He's pretty independent now," Toni said. "He's walking and he's able to eat, and he's talking and he's going through the program there." But his physical recovery is running ahead of his mental recovery from the brain damage he suffered. "It's a good thing and a bad thing, because he's physically able to go, he thinks he can go home and he wants to go home, but someone always has to be there to be sure he doesn't wander off," she said. "It's going to take a while." So far, the doctors can't say whether she'll be able to bring him home for Christmas, but the prisoner fundraising campaign has buoyed her spirits, no matter what happens. "I know there's more good in the world than bad," she said. "It's a beautiful gesture." A trust fund for Anthony Andreola has been established at the Fairview Community Branch (Branch 8) of Vancity credit union. Burnaby RCMP Const. Kalinda Link said investigators are still not sure why Andreola was attacked, and have yet to make an arrest, although she said they have "several promising leads."

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