This is a story about a friend of mine. We got to know each other in 1980, in Santa Cruz, CA as we were neighbors. We attended each other's weddings and remain good friends to this day. There was a period of about 10 years when we weren't in contact with each other, but we reconnected about 15 years ago on Facebook, and I was surprised to find out she had a second career becoming what she always wanted to do--Become a teacher.
She was teaching at a middle school in the Los Angeles area, and while I live in Northern California, we still speak maybe once every month or two. Her stories she shares with me about her "kids" from her classes, and she loves them all.
The important thing to know about her is that what she teaches her students, and motivates them of things to do, they cannot find between the covers of a books. She actually gets them to adopt, then practice what she preaches.
The one story that touches me was an unbelievable act of kindness she extended to one of her kids (students) and how she had a whole bunch of his classmates to participate. One of her better students, who was also very popular amongst his fellow students because of his humor and friendliness to all was diagnosed with cancer. He had a tumor on the base of his skull right at the brain stem. This started causing him to lose quite a few days of school, but the kid persisted. He had one of his neighbor kids pick up his homework assignments and return them to her. She was his favorite teacher.
The kid was from a poor family... His mother cleaned hotel rooms and the parents were separated. Eventually, his medical bills became so overwhelming that he, his mother and sister and two brothers moved into a small 2 bedroom apartment with the mother's sister and family. They were all sleeping on the floor. They were on a waiting list for subsidized housing, and my friend guided through that. She also did a lot of legwork and got Loma Linda Children's Hospital to give healthcare to the boy.
Further, she got student volunteers (7-9th graders) to hold a car wash on a Saturday to raise funds for their classmate and his family. Needless to say, this popular kid had a lot of kids volunteer. The money they raised was given to the mom, mainly for gas as the hospital was about an hour away (on LA freeways) and she was most grateful.
One day at school, once the boy returned, he had an episode. It was May, and an ambulance came to take him away, and it was lunch period so naturally it was witnessed by all the kids, and was the talk of the school for the rest of the day. It was also his last day at school. He passed away. She got the call from the boy's tearful mother who just wanted to thank her for all she had done to help her family in a time of need... The kids demanded another car wash to raise money for the mother! She beamed with pride, as she realized the lesson had sunk into their DNA.
Years later, when former students came back to visit her in her classroom, they all mentioned the car wash they held and how they'll always remember that act of kindness. Some lessons learned at school just can't be found in textbooks. They have to be lived, experienced, and shared. One blossom produces a thousand seed.
This post is part of the December 2023 Active Rain Challenge
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