Today, May 6, is National Teacher Appreciation Day.
PisecoSis gave a final at 8 am. It’s a family tradition, Murphy’s Law, because today was my mother’s birthday. And it seemed that more years than not Mom would have to give an early morning calculus final on her birthday. I proctored for several years with her, and one year in particular she had such a close bond with her students that they brought her a cake with candles - college students, during finals week, being that thoughtful? Obviously she was something special. (PisecoSis is too, of course! It’s just not her birthday.)
My mother was an amazing teacher. She believed in her students, in what they could do, and that experience of learning calculus should be more than filling out bubbles on a scantron form.
She was my first and my greatest teacher. She taught me how to love, how to live, how to dance as if no one was watching. She taught me how to move on from your mistakes, even big ones. She taught me how to be a mother, and how to teach.
I miss her, but more than anything, I grieve that she didn’t have the opportunity to watch her grandkids grow. She would have loved BabyGirl, she would have been so proud of JediBoy, and they would have loved her as fiercely as I did.
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