Elizabeth Riddle - a fifth grade teacher I’ll never forget

When I was in forth and fifth grade I was going through a bit of a hard time. My parent’s divorce was begining to affect me in more ways than it had before, and it was very difficult to fit in with my hippie hand-me-downs in a dominantly urban school. To make matters worse, my cat died February of that year, and I was devastated.

But my teacher, Ms. Riddle, was always there for me. I live right outside DC and she had a sweet soft voice from Louisiana and was young with short curly blonde hair. When she found out about my cat dying, she called her mom and had her send her very own diary from when she was in fifth grade up to DC. When it got here she gave it to me and opened it up to one of the pages and told me I could read it. It was the entry she had written when HER dog had died. I never ever forgot this and remained touched by her dedication to her students.

Throughout the years I kept in touch with her, and when I was seventeen she offered to take me out to dinner. We went out to eat and she could tell that I was clearly having back problems. She said she knew this might come across as blunt, but she wondered if I ever considered having a breast reduction. I said I hadn’t, but after the scoliosis in my back grew worse, I knew I was going to need to get the procedure done. As perhaps you might have guessed, she too had had to get a reduction when she was around my age, and she stood by me the whole time, even visiting me several days in a row when I was bed-ridden to read and talk to me and bring me cards and flowers.

I am now twenty years old, and take care of children for a living while I go through school. I only hope that I can be there for my kids, the way she was there for me. Thanks Ms. Riddle! I love you and you will always be a role model and inspiration.