Teddy Stallard was student in Miss Thompson’s 5th grade class. Even though Miss Thompson was a Christian and tried to show love to all her students, with Teddy is was difficult. He seemed disinterested in school and always answered in monosyllables. He was unmotivated and distant, and just plain hard to like. Whenever she marked Teddy’s papers, she got a certain pleasure out of putting X’s next to the wrong answers. And when she put the F’s at the top of the papers, she always did it with flair.
Then one afternoon she took a moment and read through Teddy’s records:
1st Grade: Teddy shows promise with his work and attitude, but poor home situation.
2nd Grade: Teddy could do better. Mother is seriously ill. He receives little help at home.
3rd Grade: Teddy is a good boy but too serious. He is a slow learner. His mother died this year.
4th Grade: Teddy is very slow, but well-behaved. His father shows no interest.
For Christmas that year the students in Miss Thompson’s class brought her Christmas presents. Teddy’s gift was wrapped in brown paper, and written on it were the simple words, “For Miss Thompson from Teddy." When she opened Teddy’s present, out fell a gaudy rhinestone bracelet, with half the stones missing, and a bottle of cheap perfume.
The other boys and girls began to giggle and smirk over Teddy’s gifts, but Miss Thompson silenced them by putting on the bracelet and putting some of the perfume on her wrist. Holding her wrist up for the other children to smell, she said, "Doesn’t it smell lovely?" And the children, taking their cue from the teacher, readily agreed with "oo’s” and “ah’s.”
At the end of the day, when school was over and the other children had left, Teddy came over to her desk and said softly, “Miss Thompson, you smell just like my mother, and her bracelet looks real pretty on you, too. I’m glad you liked my presents." When Teddy left, Miss Thompson hung her head and asked God to forgive her.
Miss Thompson became a different person. She was now a person committed to loving her children and doing things for them that would live on after they left her class. She helped all the children, but especially Teddy Stallard. By the end of that school year, Teddy showed dramatic improvement. He had caught up with most of the students and was even ahead of some.
She didn’t hear from Teddy for a long time. Then one day she received a note,
Dear Miss Thompson,
I wanted you to be the first to know. I will be graduating second in my class.
Love, Teddy Stallard
Four years later, another note came:
Dear Miss Thompson,
This just told me I will be graduating first in my class. I wanted you to be the first to know. The university has not been easy, but I liked it.
Love, Teddy Stallard
And four years later:
Dear Miss Thompson,
As of today, I am Theodore Stallard, M.D. How about that? I wanted you to be the first to know. I am getting married next month, the 27th to be exact. I want you to come and sit where my mother would sit if she were alive. You are the only family i have now; Dad died last year.
Love, Teddy Stallard
Miss Thompson went to that wedding and sat where Teddy’s mother would have sat. She deserved to sit there; she had done something for Teddy that he would never forget.
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