Thank you, Mrs. Lowry by Michelle Joy Teigrob

 

My first book came out when I was 12 years old, thanks to my Grade 8 English teacher, Mrs. Lowry, who chose to notice and respond to two needy students in her class.

My twin, Maria, and I had recently immigrated to Canada. The experience of culture shock entwined with pre-teen hormones meant we had entered the most excruciating time of our lives yet. We were probably the most painfully shy, awkward, freckle-faced girls our teacher had ever met.

Overwhelmed, resentful, flailing to find a place to belong, we turned to the greatest solace of our lives at the time – books. Maria and I read obsessively in those years. Anne of Green Gables was a lifeline. I honestly can’t imagine how we would have coped during that period of emotional upheaval without the ability to read.

(I teach new immigrants to read now, people who never learned what letters mean, even in their first language. Perhaps my junior high experience is part of the reason I am so passionate about this work.)

With her bright red lipstick, dangling gold earrings, and heels, Mrs. Lowry was unlike any of the teachers we’d experienced in our small, rural school in Belize. She laughed and spoke loudly, enjoyed the Cats musical immensely, and planned to move west shortly to be with her second husband after a failed first marriage.

Mrs. Lowry gave us a writing project – a story birthed from our own imaginations. All the Grade 8 students would have been required to complete it, of course. Breathlessly inspired by our Lucy Maud Montgomery books consumption, my twin and I took to the task as if we had been asked to save the world.

Intoxicated by the joy of creation, we planned and wrote and planned some more with possibly greater intensity than our heroine author ever did. We did so for our own sakes, not with the goal of getting the highest grade or becoming world-famous, but because we came alive as we wrote.

Mrs. Lowry decided our stories – both mine and my twin’s – needed to be published. Perhaps the tales showed some flair, though both of us cringed later to reread them. My twin even went so far as to destroy her copy some years afterward, she was so embarrassed by it. Certainly, the stories weren’t good enough to warrant the extra cost and work to get them typed up and hard-bound.

At the time, however, we were overjoyed. Our stories would be published! The winner of a lottery could not be as happy as we were on learning this news. I felt as though my bliss lifted me above the ground for weeks. My culture shock and pre-teen hormonal troubles shrank to almost nothing during that period.

I firmly believe this is why Mrs. Lowry decided to put in the extra work and cost publish to  our stories – she noticed the struggle of two new students, and she decided to do what she could to bring just a bit more joy into their lives.

Thank you and bless you, Mrs. Lowry. Your kindness will always be remembered.

Michelle Joy Teigrob is an author, college instructor, mom of three, and wife of one. She grew up as a missionary kid in Belize, Central America, the youngest of 10 children. In addition to her twin’s death, she has since lived through the loss of two other sisters. Michelle is launching a blog on her journey through her wrenching sadness. Visit www.michellejoybooks.ca to learn more.