The last time I saw her she was reading the Bible to her father.~Aunt kate

Niece and nephews of Aunt Kate celebrating their Irish

Chapter 18 (cont.)

Another pupil at Glen Ellen, a girl, was born feeble minded. I taught her to read, write and spell, and when she left my school, she could write a very interesting letter. The last I heard of her was that she was caring for some of the younger children of the institution, washing and dressing them in the mornings and reading to them and putting them to bed at night. I know how happy that must make her. The last time I saw her, ten or twelve years ago, she was reading the Bible to her father. 


Another pupil, a bright boy, was stricken with infantile paralysis in the first part of his forth grade year. His parents moved into a house quit near to where I lived, and when he was able to stand it, they carried him across the street to my place and during the years he finished the fourth, fifth and sixth grades. When he reached the seventh grade he was able, with the aid of a cane, by starting his journey by seven thirty o'clock, to arrive at the school house in time for school. 


There were others who were handicapped in other ways, by poverty, home conditions, by a low order of mentality, and on account of these circumstances they were persecuted by their more fortunate school mates. This I was able to stop very easily. There were some pupils in the school with very good dispositions and by appealing to their sense of kindness and fair play, they were brought to see how very cruel they had been and were willing and eager to make amends. 

"The little children had come, baby teeth shining, and faces glowing"~Aunt Kate

Aunt kate

I know it is hard to have the time to read a long page. I am going to split Chapter 18 so that you can read it faster. 

Chapter 18

Leaving this home place was not easy. This part of the country had been my home since 1875. In the Eureka District I had passed the greater part of my school life and a number of my school mates were still living here. Here I had been married and my children born. In this place I have known about the joys and sorrows that usually enter into any one persons life. The people had been as my own people for so long a time that it was hard to part with them. 

During the fifteen years of my school teaching here, at the beginning of the term those trusting little children had come, baby teeth shining, and faces glowing, and had gone on from one grade to the next until they had graduated, and had known no other teacher. For fifteen years at the beginning of every term a beginner's class, at it's close a graduating class. What a glorious opportunity I had for doing good. 

During those years I had more to do for the handicapped children than falls to the lot of many teachers. There was a boy who was sent to me, and as I see it now, if God hadn't been with me every minute of the time, I could never had done anything for him. As it was I took him through the grades to the sixth, when his parents moved away. He is now a man thirty seven years of age, and anyone not knowing his history would think he never could be anyway but normal. 

(to be continued)

You were so awesome Aunt Kate, I love you!!

Love,
Grammy T.