Back in November, I posted "Will the bet pay off?" It highlighted some of my struggles as a young man and the teacher that saved my butt from academic destruction in my future years.
I never wrote a Part II as I promised. It was going to be about me sticking my neck out for a kid to keep her from getting put into even lower classes. As it turns out, she did not get her butt in gear, talks big, but suffered the consequences and I got "told ya' so" from one of my co-workers... not a mean one though.
Why am I bringing this up months later? Well, a little more than a week ago I got a phone call from the teacher who saved me. When I was in her class around 20 years ago, she was a newly becoming single lady in her mid 40's or so. When I talked to her days ago, she called to tell me that she was a month from getting married and moving to Chicago to be with a man that she has been corresponding and visiting with for the last few years. She will also be a grandmother a few weeks later and will be coming back to see her daughter and hopefully make a lunch date with me, my wife and my mother.
I was seriously touched that she would call me, her fifth grader from 1985-86. She provided the care that motivated me or she was willing to look past my shell and see who I really could be... or both. Teachers can't touch all of their students, but some will be glad to see you or come back to visit. I have already had a few during my short career.
