She raised the spirits of a little twelve year old kid and showed her how to grow

When I was 14, I was in high school, a year early because I went to an accelerated junior high where you did 3 years in 2. You were selected in a group of special smart kids chosen about 8 from each elementary school to go to this school. It was called Robert E. Lee Junior High. It was quite a dumpy building, no amenities, only us selected children.

I did not know anybody there other than the other 7 and me. They seemed to know each other many of them.

The homeroom teacher Miss Olga Virginia Bawden, took a liking to me and this was nice. She taught us French and I learned a lot from her. Her fiancé had been killed in the war and she wore the earrings he gave her before he left and never changed them for the whole two years we were there. She had long beautiful blonde hair and she wore it during school in a bun in back of her head which made her look severe.

I graduated from there two years later and one day when I was in high school and I was working two nights a week in Stewarts Department store and I modeled on Saturdays for them, the buyers from each misses and juniors division. I saw her walk by and she waved to me and that holiday season, she sent me a card and said one day she would enjoy having lunch with me when possible.

I was so excited she remembered me and we met one afternoon in the restaurant in the store and it was called a tea room. She hugged me and we ate a light sandwich lunch since I only had 60 minutes to be there. She treated me and hugged me and she told me that of all the junior high kids that year and the following years, I was her favorite. I never forgot that golden moment that she said that to me.

The years went by and finally the cards and small gifts she inserted in the cards each year were gone. I read in the newspapers one day, that she had passed on and I cried because I thought of the fine teacher with the long blonde hair who had inserted herself in my life one day at school when she told me that the next time over summer, she wanted me to have long lovely nails, not bitten off ones. She said that was an order.

So I let them grow that first summer and when I came back and I proudly showed my long pink nails. She sent me a card telling me she was proud of me.

So here was a young teacher about 10 years older than me and she took the time to care about me. She had told me that she knew I would be outstanding the first day she laid eyes on me oh so many years ago about in 1946.

Many years later, my brother was a pharmacist in one of the hospitals where her father was the chief of the hospital. My brother heard the name of Dr. George Bawden and he asked him if his daughter was named Olga Virginia Bawden. He said yes and my brother told him how his little sister, me adored his daughter. He was so pleased. A small world.

A kind teacher liked a young kid, me and she never forgot me and I never forgot her.

Epictatus said " keep company with people who raises you up mentally." This I did for two blessed years that I knew her.