I Wish I Could Thank Her...

In the eighth grade, I was a disaster.  I struggled with my weight.  I struggled in my first year in Catholic High School.  I struggled at home.  My school days were normally spent standing outside a classroom or in the Vice Principal's office for acting out in front of my peers.  I was the class clown.

Mrs. Rae-Kelly started my English year and was a spitfire of a teacher.  She was a tiny Irish woman with passion that I had never seen in any teacher before.  Mrs. Rae-Kelly loved literature and loved her students.  With each student, she took the time to look for a single spark of talent.  As soon as she did, she promoted it in the class.  Her eyes lit up with joy, respect, and enthusiasm.

This was a teacher who commanded respect and gave it.  We wanted to please her.  I worked on our papers with more effort than I would normally put in in an entire year of school.  At the time, one of the talents I had was drawing pictures.  For Mrs. Rae-Kelly, I would spend hours drawing cover pages.  I'm now 38 years old, but I vividly remember my cover page for "And Then There Were None", by Agatha Christie.

With colored pencils I detailed the drawing on my cover page.  I was proud of my writing and simply wanted to garnish it with the right cover page.  Mrs. Rae-Kelly loved the book report and the cover.  There's no way I can put into words how that made me feel.  Mrs. Rae-Kelly inspired me and provided me with more confidence than I could find anywhere else in my life at the time.

I write today, 25 years later, and I love it.  I still have issues with grammar and spelling - something that I pay very close attention to.  Many people do not write because of fear or embarassment. I continue to read articles on the Internet that belittle bloggers and writers for common errors.. it's vs. its, advise vs. advice, whether vs. weather.

Mrs. Rae-Kelly would correct those errors, but never focus on them.  Her focus was to enabled the talent in her children, not to disable it.  Mrs. Rae-Kelly left the school to have her first child mid-year.  I went from an A to an F in English, scraping by with a C for the year and missing her attention each and every day she was gone.

I have no way of finding Mrs. Rae-Kelly today.  I wish I could thank her for inspiring me to write.  I haven't stopped since.