IT’S very easy to like your friends, but what about reaching across to those who are different; that man who smells, the poor, the overdressed woman trying to make an impression? Her name was Mrs. Thompson. Like most teachers, she looked at her students and said she loved them all the same.
But she knew it was a lie, because there in the front row, slumped in his seat, was a little boy named Teddy. Mrs. Thompson had watched Teddy the year before and noticed that his clothes were messy and that he constantly needed a bath.
She felt even worse when her students brought her Christmas presents, wrapped in beautiful ribbons and bright paper, except for Teddy’s. His present was clumsily wrapped and some of the children started to laugh when she found an old bangle with some of the stones missing, and a bottle that was half full of perfume.
But then she did a strange thing, she looked at Teddy’s presents and exclaimed how pretty the bangle was, putting it on, she dabbed some of the perfume on her wrist. Teddy Stoddard stayed after school that day, just long enough to say, “Mrs. Thompson, today you smelled just like my Mom used to, before she died last year!”
After the children left she cried for at least an hour. On that very day, she realized what it was to reach out and touch someone whom you didn’t like at first. She continued to pay particular attention to Teddy and as she worked with him, his mind seemed to come alive. The more she encouraged him, the faster he responded. By the end of the year, Teddy had become one of smartest children in the class.
Ten years after that, she got a letter, saying that while things had been tough at times, but he had stuck with it, and would soon graduate from college with the highest of honours. He assured Mrs Thompson that she was still the best and favourite teacher he ever had in his whole life.
Then four more years passed and yet another letter came. The letter explained that she was still the best teacher he ever had. But now his name was a little longer — the letter said, “”Thank you Mrs. Thompson for believing in me. Thank you so much for making me feel important and showing me that I could make a difference.” signed, Theodore F Stoddard, MD.
She gasped, Dr Teddy Stoddard was now a famous doctor at Iowa Methodist Hospital in Des Moines and had established the Stoddard Cancer Wing! It’s very easy to reach out to your friends, isn’t it, but when you do reach out to that man who smells, the girl who acts different, then wonderful things happen like they happened to Teddy..!
