remembering him

my favorite high school teacher passed away recently.

i smile when i think of how old he got to be - 87.
which means he was my age that i am now when he was teaching me.
wow.
he seemed SO old back then.
wow.

i'm glad he had a full life.
i don't know anything about him except the little bit from our time in
a high school classroom.

he taught english.
and i learned a lot from him.
one thing i learned was 'a lot' is two words.
took me til 12th grade to get that.
kinda amazing right there.
apparently i had much to learn.

i liked him. i respected him. and i learned from him.
that's a cool thing to be able to say about someone.

on the day i graduated, he made a point of seeking out my parents.
he told them that i was - and i'm not sure of the exact word -
it was a word that made my eyes pop wide -
something delicious like  - exceptional, or extraordinary....something like that.

i remember being shocked.
he wasn't big on the compliments.
or at least, i don't remember any others.
but the whole seeking out my parents to tell them.....
well that i remember so many years later.
it mattered.

when i heard the news of his passing, i went back in my mind to the
memories i had of him. and when i got to that one, i just shook my head.
it really doesn't take a whole lot to make an impression on someone, does it?
kindness lasts thru years and years, and now, it is still here even after death.

kindness. that one extra step and that offering of kindness.
it's huge.

that's something i thought was worth stopping and thinking about.
and i thought it was a good way to honor this man.

i don't think he'd like the grammar in this blog.
in fact, i'm pretty sure he'd cross out a lot of it and call a lot of it
'garbage words.'  and he'd definitely fail me on the use - or non-use of capital letters.
but i hope he'd feel the love and know that i'm carrying him in my heart
and have been ever since he taught me that 'a lot' is two words,
and then proceeded to teach me the beauty of language.