Saturday, January 23, 2021
Edar,
Thank you for taking me in and giving me a place to live while I pursued my dream of becoming a teacher.
I’ll always remember and appreciate your kindness and overall positivity. I never doubted that I was loved. You treated me like I was your son, always asking about my day over dinner after coming home from my classes at Stony Brook. I’ll always appreciate the meals, especially because you didn’t hold back on the garlic and spices. Seriously, before you made it, I thought shepherd’s pie was the grossest thing anyone could eat. That is until you and I agreed that those potatoes needed at least 8 cloves of garlic. Now that is how it’s supposed to be, even if it meant that people should avoid smelling our breath for a day.
And, this is painful to admit, but you were one hell of a Scrabble player. You absolutely obliterated me, an English teacher-to-be, by an embarrassing margin. I think my pride is preventing me from remembering the exact final score, but it wouldn’t be too much of an exaggeration to say it was something like 300-70. I blame those triple word score spots…
Yours was a kind of love that everyone needs in the world. One that never has the recipient questioning how much you care about them, but also that you expect the best from them. If someone does something wrong, they will definitely know about it, but they will also acknowledge it, ashamed to have brought the disappointment of someone who means so much to them. It’s something that any teacher needs to learn how to do: love their students while holding them to a standard they know the students are capable of. You do that naturally. I’m still learning, but I appreciate knowing I have a model for what it looks like.
Thank you, Edar, for being there for me when I needed it. I’ll miss you dearly.
Love,
Your Joey
