A Lesson of Love

 I am a Special Educator who has taught for 11 years. I teach a life skills program at a High School. I have the privilege to teach with two awesome and dedicated para-professionals. School has begun this week and already I have had a life changing lesson from a student. I have a profoundly disabled student who though she can walk and breathe independently that is the only things she can do with out support.

Last year from August till January this student slept over 6  hours in a 7 1/2 hour school day. Her waking hours included 1/2 hour for lunch, 2 visits to the school nurse for her meds and two times to the rest room where she had her pull ups changed, taking about 20 minutes total for two restroom visits. For the first 4 months she had 3 to 4 grand mal seizures per week. We felt she was getting ready to die. The only expression or response from her seemed to be a cowering when we got close to her. She did not come to school the months of February and March. In April and May she was more awake but not responsive to anything we attempted.

The beginning of school this week she was more aware of her surroundings and more responsive to us. She smiled when given rides in a wheel chair. In the last 3 years she has smiled 3 times and then by accident. She has smiled more than a dozen times already. When Wednesday's weekly newspaper came out we read that her Aunt was charged with abusing her from an incident back in November. We had noticed the injury and had reported it but until we read about it in the newspaper we did not know what had happened.

Yesterday she approached me when I was typing one of my endless reports, put her arms around me and gave me a hug. Her arms went under my arms and around me. I wasn't sure if the hug was an accidental body movement and so I moved her arms. She hugged me again and rested her head on my shoulder. Beyond a shadow of a doubt her hug was deliberate.

I cannot begin to tell you how deeply touched I am by her little action. This was progress by millimeters in a world where progress is measured my kilometers. Moments like this are the moments that make my career worth doing, moments like this make me think that my life might just be touching the lives of one or two, that moments like this cause me to think that maybe the ripples of my life might make a difference in the quality of life for some others.

Moments like this also make me ashamed. I thought I was reading the last sentences of her life  back in November and wondered why she was in school. I complained about her body odor, her dirty clothes and the feeling that I was just being a babysitter. If all she is ever able to do is to show me love, just one time in  the years that she is in my class then that will be a profound moment.  In the moment that she showed me love she taught me how to love better, how to be more compassionate and how to be more patient. I will be forever grateful.


My student's two hugs lasted less than 3 minutes but I still feel them. May our lives be full of hugs and full of small miracles that we can feel always, especially when we feel alone.