Forgot to tell you about a lovely thing that happened a couple of weeks ago. I was taking part in the Dulwich Artists’ Open House, selling my crochet at the house of a very talented friend, Clare Nicholson, who is a superb printmaker. I was sitting there chatting with Clare and with Janet Whittaker, who makes amazing animals out of felted wool (which are also sold at the Jane Newbery shop in Dulwich Village), when a chap came in. Somehow we got around to talking about work and he was saying how dispirited he was feeling at the moment, as a teacher, with so much paperwork, so many exams, so many difficult classes… and he added that sometimes it seemed so difficult just to get through to the pupils at all – they seemed to be completely bored and left cold by their teachers.
Janet immediately said that that wasn’t always true, her own son had been really inspired by one of his teachers, who had helped to get him interested in lots of books and whom he still talked about fondly, though he had dropped the subject. ‘I’ll always feel really grateful to Mr X for inspiring my son like that,’ said Janet.
There was a silence, then the teacher piped up, astonished. ‘But I’m Mr X!’
They soon worked out that he had, indeed, taught Janet’s boy and he remembered him well as having great talent at the subject.
What were the chances that Mr X would have popped in, been talking about work, and that he and Janet would have had that conversation? He had already made a big difference to Janet’s son and Janet as well – and now Janet had had a chance to return the favour. It was a really touching moment, which I must admit left not a dry eye in the house. Oh, and I sold some crochet too 🙂