Day 278

The memorial was well attended and well done. Lots of laughing and hugs. I walked in the wind and rain yesterday and got a chill. Felt poorly for about an hour and then up and running again. Today is the first day of Advent and I will go to church. Later, more turkey soup full of noodles, chard, and kale. I have floors to tend and may get more deep cleaning done. I have enjoyed the neat closet. Now for drawers.

POH

In the early 1970’s, I was assigned to a special education pilot program for brain injured and emotionally disturbed children. My class was called Primary One because I had the students with little or no academic skills. They were different ages since it was not set up like a grade level class. I had siblings who had started a fire that resulted in the death of a sibling. I want to write about Matt Lehman who was six years old at the time. Blue eyed, blond haired, cute looking and stiff as a stone statue. I had a rocking chair and I would pick him up and rock him until he relaxed enough to make eye contact and then we would talk. He made great progress in the three R’s. It was an engineered classroom, fully structured and made use of task cards that earned rewards at the end of the day. An m&m was placed on each check on the card.

A few months ago, I came out of Safeway and was called by a guy in an old beat up pickup truck. I went over to see who called me and it was Matt, methed up and tweaked to the max. “You owe me three M&M’s”. He remembered a time when he felt safe and cared for. I wish I could say that I saved him from what was inevitable but I did make a difference once.