REMEMBER, YOU HAVE PEOPLE HERE. Pt. 2

Pt. 2

About the time the mid-90’s rolled around, I was on the verge of completing my Master’s Degree, and my daughter, Kristen, was finishing high school. And speaking of “the trip of a lifetime” her high school band was invited to march in the Macy’s Day Parade. And amazingly, wonderfully the Winter Haven High School Band was afforded the privilege of leading the Christmas Parade of all Christmas parades; as it made its way down the streets of Manhattan.

While we have long since misplaced that old VHS tape, we will always remember our heart-felt pride, as we watched our dear daughter high step the streets of New York; her trusty clarinet in hand and the reed tucked firmly between her lips.

A decade later I met Jane; a precious young Jewish girl who attended my old alma mater, Southeastern University, and whom I had the privilege of serving as a professor in Educational Psychology. It was my first of seven semesters at the school. Three memorable years, but few students as memorable as Jane. And I will always recall one outstanding day during that first semester which out shown every day which followed it for its uniqueness.

At this stage I cannot recite every detail of the experience, but I suppose I had asked Jane to either open or close the class in prayer. Suddenly, as my dear student slowly began, her slightly accented English metamorphosed into what seemed to be a heavenly language, (or unknown tongue). To be sure Jane may have been speaking in Hebrew, one of her native tongues, and though I don’t speak that language, having heard it in the past I think I would have recognized the sound of it. (I recently conferred with my former student and she recalled having prayed a long prayer that day, doesn’t remember having lapsed in ‘tongues,’ but acknowledges it is certainly possible).

Years passed, and as with Luis, I lost all contact with my former student, and though I reached out to her by way of the only email address I still maintained, my attempts went unrewarded.

Until…

I ‘played’ with any number of spellings of her surname on a particular social media site. For you see, her moniker was unusual and the spelling difficult.

And then a full decade after contact was broken,

…There she was again.

By William McDonald, PhD. Excerpt from "(Mc)Donald's Daily Diary" Vol. 54. Copyright pending

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