People, People Who Need People

So yesterday we had our monthly PTA meeting at the girls' school. But this time, instead of spending the entire hour begging for money, thinking of ways to raise money or imagining all the money we would be rolling in if we were all supermodels instead of mothers of grade-school children, we had a presentation by our school nurses. We managed to find time in our agenda for them between 'Groveling For Dollars' and 'Shameless Pleas For Cash' and that felt good.

We see alot of each other, these two nurses and I. Because of a strange architectural anomaly that exists in the entrance of our school, it is sometimes necessary to walk through their office in order to enter the campus. With all the time I spend there this amounts to many intrusions on their personal space, clumsily banging through with my loud shoes and oversized purse and generally making a nuisance of myself. They are always so good natured about these trespassings, cheerily greeting me and everyone who walks through - I almost feel that they would offer you a seat, a pot of tea and a wafer if they didn't have to tend to that pale kid in the chair heaving up big chunks of his breakfast. I have no doubt that if I were faced with the same constant interruption of bodies swaggering through my workspace I would be a raving lunatic, threatening everybody with a syringe filled with horse tranquilizer.

The presentation they gave was required by the district detailing the school's emergency plans and procedures. In light of all the natural disasters occurring almost weekly, I feel good knowing that my children are in a place where people actually take the words 'Earthquake Kit' and 'Preparedness' seriously, since you can bet if the Big One hits while we're at home, Rigel, the girls and I will all be scratching each other's eyes out for that lone piece of beef jerky and the can of root beer we have tucked away 'just in case.' I was duly impressed with their inventory of emergency supplies (enough food and water for everyone for THREE DAYS), and by the time they got to the part about the 'Bathroom In A Box' I was begging them to let my family and all our relatives move in.

Our babysitter picked up the girls from school yesterday and when I got home, Kiyomi couldn't wait to tell me her 'surprise': her loose tooth (or as she now pronounces it, "toof") had finally fallen out. She told me that her teacher had sent her to the nurses' office, and then she showed me this sticker they gave her along with this teeny tiny little treasure box to hold her tooth. It struck me what a simple, loving gesture this was and how I felt very lucky that these women are there looking out for my girls, since THEIR OWN MOTHER usually just unceremoniously wraps it in a square of toilet paper before propping it up next to their pillow.


If this doesn't just make you cry, well, your heart is a cold, small stone.

Archive File: Offspring | This Life

Tweet Pin It