Dear Ate Flory,
How many of your students remember that they went to your class? I remember because of two reasons, one of which may be a made-up memory.
I know I was in your class at Holy Infant Day Care Center because your older sister tells me. Mommy Myrns, who is my godmother and one of Mama's closest friends, put me and my friends up at a little pension house when we came home to visit.
The other reason I think I was in your class, is because in my memory of the time I was stabbed in the eye with a classmate's pencil, you were there and brought my crying self home to my mother. Is that my own personal memory? My face doesn't bear a mark from that incident--only by the grace of God. I don't remember the pain nor the sting of my mother's rebuke. Details from that event are filled in by my mother, from you presumably. Did I thank you for bringing me home? Did I apologize to my classmate? Mama is sure I had brought it on by stabbing another classmate on his arm.
Did I ever tell you that for two years after college, I taught at a daycare center? When I left, I received a scrapbook of photos and greetings from parents and children and teachers. I then spent a few months building on that scrapbook and remembering my little ones. I had one-year-olds and two-year-olds and even got to spend time with the 3-month-olds. After they moved up a class, they would scream my name at the top of the stairs everytime they see me. Or they would stop playing and give me hugs at the playground.
They must be in first grade or second grade by now. I wonder if they remember me at all. Probably not. None of them had a traumatic experience in my care. None of their parents are my best friends.
There must have been difficult times for you in your years of teaching. I know, my difficult times became too much to bear, and I left. I guess, I just want to say, I am grateful to you for loving me and my classmates and for not giving up on us. Some of my classmates are now doctors, moms, dads, lawyers. They may not remember, but you had a big influence on us.
Thank you--
