When all else fails, just sit down and cry with them...

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My first grade teacher was Mrs. Seppela. She was a sturdy woman, with short black hair with grey at the temples. I hated school at this time in my life - YES me. I didn't want to be without my mother - very attached. So Mom and Dad went to the Bahamas with my Uncle Bert and Dawn. They left Christy and me at home with Nana to go on this vacation in the middle of winter. My poor grandmother. I threw myself down into the snow more than one day over this week and feigned being sick just so I didn't have to go to school. Not only did my grandmother suffer, but my teacher really didn't know what to do with me. I cried in class every day. One day she couldn't take it and she just sat down with me and cried with me. I mean she boo hooed. NO FAKING. I think this stunned me so much, I totally overcame my fear of being without my mother. I remember being concerned for her, because I had never really seen an adult cry like that. I do not remember crying at school after this. I don't know why it worked, but it did. A while after I had been in her classe, Mrs. Seppela died suddenly of a heart attack. To this day, I've always felt guilty that I was such a hard student. I felt like somehow I had contributed to the stress that took her life.
<<Post for April 15th, 2018>>

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