Yesterday, Laela made a beautiful little card for her teacher. I wish I had taken a picture of it. It was covered in stickers, hung by a little string, and was very bright and colourful. The message told her teacher that she loved her, and missed her, but it ended with an apology.
“I’m sorry I didn’t come to school on Monday.”
💔
The Monday that everything shut down, I kept both Laela and Dekker home from school. They had both picked up a cold and had deeper chesty coughs. I figured, with all the hubbub around the virus, I figured I’d rather be safe than sorry, so I kept them home. We were notified that afternoon that school was closing. Keep your kids home.
Laela has beat herself up about that ever since. She is SO sad she didn’t get to say goodbye to her teacher.
I went back and forth a bit about whether or not to actually deliver the card, because not everyone is accepting drop-offs. But I figured it was such a sweet gift, and Laela’s teacher had made her location known to her students for Halloween, so it shouldn’t feel too “invasion of privacy-ish.” If she was put off by the risk of covid, she could set it aside for a few days. All in all, I decided it was worth the risk.
We went for a walk in the beautiful evening sun yesterday, and Laela brought her card along. We went by her teachers house, and placed the card in the mailbox. While we were up on the step, a dog slammed into the door and started barking. We were hardly off the porch before someone came to the door. Her husband. He greeted us, and I told him we had just slipped something into his mailbox. He plucked it out, glanced at it, and pointedly looked at Laela.
“Wow! Mrs. Fisher will LOVE this!”
He did SO good. Laela just beamed 🙂 Too bad she couldn’t come to the door at that moment, but Laela understood, and was still really happy.
We walked a few more blocks, greeted Cher’s house, and started to head back.
As we were rounding our way back to our street, we heard a bellow “Laaaelaaaaa!”
I looked around, and saw our neighbour drive up to us. She had lovingly run an errand for me that afternoon, so we touched base and had a quick chat before she went on her way. It was weird that she had called to Laela, but 🤷♀️
Once she drove away, we kept walking, but seconds later, heard yet another “Laaaaelaaaaa!”
And I spotted her! Laela’s teacher, on her back deck, jumping up and down and waving her arms. Laela couldn’t figure out where her name was being called from, so I shouted “Wave bigger” and she did! Finally Laela saw, brightened RIGHT up, and waved back like crazy!
If you know Laela, she’s a pretty shy girl. Its mostly a facade, but she has always had a bit of a reserve. She didn’t say much, but her teacher shouted a thank you, and told Laela she missed her and hoped she was having fun being at home. I responded to her that we were trying to make the best of it. Her teacher just shrugged back at us. She, more than anyone else I’ve spoken to, has been hoping school will reopen. She misses her students, and it shows.
It felt like such a special exchange, and one I don’t want to ever forget. Our walk from the initial drop off to the conversation was likely a good 15 minutes. She was on her back deck with wet hair in the winter air, waiting to talk to Laela. And she had called to us, but we had stopped to talk to our neighbour for a few minutes in between. And she waited, and called out again!
Laela felt SO special ❤️ I doubt her teacher will ever read this blog, but if you do, you’ve made a real difference in Laela’s life!! I hope you know how much I appreciate that, as her mom.
We love our teachers!!