Eleanor

 

Fortunately, after Kindergarten, my parents decided not to send me to Public School.  They enrolled me in a Lutheran School where I had attended Sunday School and Church.  I am eternally grateful to them.

By the first grade I was already aware that I didn’t exactly fit into a group.   The classroom, the lunchroom and the playground made it clear that I was destined to struggle with school.  The rules made no sense to me and on the whole, it was a chafing experience.  Everyone was a stranger to me.

By contrast, outside of school, there were plenty of children for me to play with on my block and at the park.  On weekends I played with my cousins and their friends too.  You might say, I was a player.  My mother taught me how to ride a bike but hopscotch, jump rope, and all the other games we played I learned from a lot of kids at the park.

Once when I was at the park an eighth-grade girl saw me by the swings and came over to give me a push. She went to Trinity Lutheran and was an outsider like me.  She looked so much older and her maturity came through in the gentle kindness she showed me.   She called me “Honeechile” as she lightly pushed the swing so I could glide a little.   I still remember thinking what a pretty way to address someone whose name you didn’t know.

Later I learned her name was Eleanor.  Whenever I saw her at school, she was alone.  Some of the other eighth-grade girls made fun of her dark complexion, hairstyle and unfashionable clothes.  She never responded to their barbs, but I saw the hurt in those deep-set eyes of hers.  One day in the schoolyard she saw me and knew I’d just witnessed a similar incident.  She walked over and began to comfort me.

“Honeechile, don’t pay any attention to such nonsense.  They can’t harm me even if their words hurt me.’

“Why are they so mean to you?”

“They just showing off to each other.”

The following year, I was a second grader and Eleanor a student at Bryant High School.  I still saw her once in a while.  She was still overweight and unfashionably dressed but she had grown in stature and wisdom.  It has now been decades since I’ve seen her yet I’ll never forgot that noble character and the tenderness she spoke into my little ears.

 

Yvonne A.

Apr 2021