I Was a Starfish

I Was a Starfish

     It was September of 1968. I had just started second grade a month prior. Life, as we knew it was about to be turned completely upside down.  There was a knock on the door and there stood two uniformed Air Force officers.  My father had become a casualty of the Vietnam War.

     He was returning from a reconnaissance mission to an airfield in Ubon, Thailand when his fighter jet crashed, just three miles short of the runway.  He was trained to fly B-52 Bombers.  No one knows why he was flying a fighter jet that night.  The co-pilot ejected and lived.  I had just turned seven.  My brother was 5.

     To understand the mind of a seven year-old is a challenge.  I reacted by not wanting to go to school. I can remember hiding under the dining room table of the duplex we were living in.  I was afraid to go to school because my father had died while I was at school and I didn’t want my mother to die while I was at school.  That’s how my little brain was processing this tragedy.

     Enter Maxine Moore and Louise Shuman, second grade teacher and elementary guidance counselor, respectively.  These two women helped me get back in to the school routine, going above and beyond for this little starfish!  Mrs. Moore would greet me at the door and whisk me away to her classroom where she had “jobs” waiting for me.  We would talk while I passed out papers, fed the fish, or sharpened pencils.  Gradually, through the compassion of these two women, I began to feel less afraid. 

     But, wait!!  The story doesn’t stop there!  Mrs. Moore and I stayed in contact with each other, even after my mom remarried and we moved two hours away!  When I moved back to the city I’d been living in during second grade, to attend college, guess who was my biggest cheerleader?  You guessed it!  Mrs. Moore!  Her home was my “safe place” when college became overwhelming.  I’d go there to study, to talk about trends in education, even for Sunday dinner!

     Mrs. Moore lived to be 102!  I’m convinced that there were other “starfish” that also benefited from her love and compassion.  I will be forever thankful for her love and compassion for this little starfish!  She is the biggest reason I became a teacher, too!