To Mrs. Lynton

Dear Mrs. Lynton

I was never able to tell you just how much you meant to me. You taught me how to be a young lady, how to comport myself and even how to write a letter.

At 9 years old I found myself without a mother. I was a little girl with health issues without my mother. You became my substitute mother You knew when I was sick, you knew when I needed help you just always knew.

There were many other children in our class with disabilities, but you seemed to know that I needed that little extra to keep me going. So many days, I would come to school and just feel so low and broken. You would be there with your no nonsense attitude and it was just what I needed.

I remember you teaching me so many small things like, how to write in script. There was no ball point pen for you though. You taught me how to use an old fashioned pen with ink refills. At the time I thought that was so old fashioned, but it taught me discipline and how to write neatly. You taught me that I should never swallow gum as it would just stay in my body and clog it up. (To this day I do not eat gum).

You taught me to always stand up straight and and pull my shoulders back, and how to enter a room so that no matter how insecure I felt inside I would only show confidence on the outside.

I remember the day you took me to your house in the country. It was so big and looked like a castle. It was not a castle but it was an old stately home. Your husband was a well known surgeon and it was part of his family heritage. I ran around that beautiful house and just for a moment I forgot about missing my mother and her hugs. Right then, I was a princess in her palace.

I was a sickly child and always in and out the hospital. I will never forget when we had to take our exams and I was in the hospital. I thought I was home free, but I looked up from my hospital bed one day and there you were ready to administer my test. I was wheeled into a quite room and took that exam. I passed! You never allowed me to quit.

How many times did you tell me to be strong and that there was nothing that I could not accomplish in life as long as I applied myself? You did not care about my disability, you just saw a child who needed guidance.

I am no longer that little girl who came to school each day lonely and afraid. I am the woman that you helped me to become. I learned from you that nothing was impossible and that I should never quit. You saw passed my weakness and showed me how to stand strong and be proud of who I am. It may not sound like much to some but to me it was everything.

Many years have passed, I have no pictures of you but I close my eyes and I can still see you sitting at your desk in the classroom silver hair in a tight bun. I close my eyes and I can smell your perfume. I see your gentle smile and your beautiful blue eyes sparkling as you patiently try to explain simple mathematics to a child who was hopeless at mathematics.

I have children of my own now and grandchildren and I love telling them about you and how you inspired me and kept me strong when I was so lonely. I wish you could see me now. I believe you would be proud because I still remember all that you taught me and each and every day I try to implement your teachings into my life. I am a strong woman who has achieved so much. I will never forget you Mrs. Margaret Lynton because you saved my life.

All my love and appreciation

Cora