Let me back up a little. I have big hopes and dreams for my first classroom after 3 years of language intervention, but what I don't have is the materials to make those dreams come true. That's where my lovely family, friends, and fine folks came rushing in like the educational cavalry. A lot of you I'm lucky enough to have in my life because of Greg, and you honor him with your contributions. Some of you never met my dad, but if you like me then you'd love him, because he's a huge part of how I became the person and educator that I am- so you're honoring him too. If I accidentally overlooked you, or if you were called to this blog for another reason, you can see what I'm talking about here:
http://www.donorschoose.org/we-teach/1025908?active=true
When I moved to New York to follow my bliss at 21 years old, I have such a strong memory of my dad taking me to buy my first real suit. "For job interviews," he said, "so you can look as good as you feel." The past couple of weeks have been bittersweet as I've imagined how he would have supported me in this new phase of my career. When I was checking my address book to send the email asking for help in my classroom, my heart gave a stutter-stop at Greg's name. I still can't bring myself to delete his address.
The universe has sent me some hard knocks the past couple years, but every time I think I'm drowning, another wave of love washes me ashore. Sometimes it feels like teaching is all that's held me together at the roughest times. I am so grateful for this job, and I am so grateful to all of YOU!
3 comments:
I really liked the article, and the very cool blog
Hi. My name is Alison. I met Greg Suddeth in 1977, doing stand up at a club called "John's Place" in Hollywood. He was hilarious. We wound up doing a really weird comedy album called, "Heeere's Amy!" about the Carter administration, as seen through the eyes of eight year old Amy.
Greg, of course, was the voice of Jimmy Carter, Walter Cronkite and Richard Nixon. (Oh and Idi Amin. Because you just couldn't have a comedy album without Idi Amin, could you?)
He was absolutely brilliant. And a very, very nice person. I was only 15 at the time, but he always struck me as a sweet, gentle soul.
I was up late the other night, looking to see what became of the other cast members of "Heeere's Amy!" and I found this site.
I was so very sorry to see that he was no longer with us. But I can see here that he was loved so very, very much.
And that made me feel a whole lot better.
Thank you for putting up this beautiful page. (Love the musical choices too.)
Alison Arngrim (aka "Lil' Amy")
Yo, Big Daddy G..........your daughter's 29th birthday is coming up, and I'm sitting here thinking about all the emotions we were feeling, waiting for her to arrive. Oh, what a time in our lives that was! Hey, can you do me a favor? How 'bout shooting a special moonbeam her way this weekend? I miss having you here to celebrate with us but I know we will feel the love...xoxoxo
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