Dear Reader:

Upon reflection the collision of turning forty and facing a formidable opponent-like Hurricane Hugo-was already written in the stars.

I didn’t know it then but I was busy living the story that was patiently waiting to be told when the time was right! August 7, 2010 was the day the story could wait no longer!

Having Hurricane Hugo cancel my 40th birthday party was a big disappointment but I now realize that it was the catalyst for change in my life- symbolic for me. My marriage and former life as I knew it was over… destroyed forever “But” I now had an opportunity to re-write the future with a clean slate… out with the old-in with the new.

The new chapters in my life story would contain adventures abroad and at home ( that I could never have even dreamed about in my former life, challenges raising three children- the most important part to get right, educational opportunities beyond my wildest imagination and memories to last a life time! )

Looking back on my years of teaching-1989-the year of Hugo -changed my outlook on my role-just not as a teacher -but as a mentor to children searching for someone to confide in.

We teachers took a large chunk of academic time post-Hugo to give students time to reflect on their own unique family situations and the importance of keeping personal and historical journals to remember ‘ the way they were.’

It would take two more decades of living, fighting breast cancer, a first-born grandchild, and a little chapel in the woods to get to that long-awaited day… ‘the day when the story inside me wanted to breathe on its own’… eleven years breathing on its own now!

So until tomorrow… the students laughingly teased us teachers about acting like preachers and nuns when they returned to school after Hugo …so much so that for Halloween the teaching staff dressed up as monks, nuns, priests, including a “Holy Ghost”! Fun memories!

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh

And it was certainly my niece Bekah’s favorite day! On September 13 she received her hard-earned certificate-Classroom Training of the Charleston County Consolidated-9-11- Center! Congratulations 🎈🎊 Bekah!!! So proud of you!