Dear Teacher Who Sings in the Rain,
There is a Christmas ornament that hangs on a twinkling tree I will never see, in a house I will never enter, made by hands I have never touched.
This ornament was made by Martha Todd, who I hear really loved Christmas. She made the ornament for a friend in 1978.
I can’t figure out if it is a blessing or a shame that the things people make with their own two hands often outlive the people who made them, but I am inclined to say a blessing.
Tomorrow would have been Martha Todd’s 64th birthday. Instead of celebrating with cake or balloons, her three beautiful daughters will honor her legacy with the 6th annual, “Be the Good Day.” If the timing is just right, they might also be welcoming a new baby boy to the fold who could likely share a birthday with his grandmother.
The premise behind the day is to do something good for someone (maybe buy lunch for a friend or say hello to a stranger). This day is a tribute to their late mother whose life mantra was, “Every day may not be a good day, but there is good in every day.”
To Martha Todd, this phrase was not merely needlepoint on a throw pillow. After a nearly two-decade battle with cancer in various stages and forms, this motto was a truth seared so deep into the core of who she was, it has seeped into the very pores of her children, grandchildren, and even a stranger like me.
I once watched a facebook video of Martha where she recalled the times in her life where she chose to “sing in the rain,” as she called it. For nearly six minutes, she recounted instances of sorrow such as shaving her head after chemo followed by moments of blessing like receiving a handmade scarf in the mail. She stressed that being grateful was not about the circumstances of life, but rather the perspective of the person in the circumstance. She retired as a teacher in Santa Rosa County after 35 years and was a teacher in the truest sense of the word, so much so that she is still teaching the survivors of 2020 lessons of gratitude from the portals of glory.
She counted each day a blessing and fought valiantly for enough time to make her mark on the world. I’d say she did.
I once heard a story about how she refused to call in a substitute teacher even when she was undergoing chemotherapy. Instead, she elected to teach from the rocking chair of her classroom. I don’t know any of the students who sat at her feet that year, but I am guessing they never wondered where her heart was.
Neither did her grown daughters who loved her hamburger dip, cheesecake, peppermint ice cream and their Christmas stockings. Each stocking stuffer was individually wrapped in their own Christmas paper signaling what belonged to them.
Those individually wrapped presents (kindness, goodness, love) are now the gifts her daughters so graciously share with each of us. Tomorrow is a day we can all do something good for someone in her honor.
It’s a very unique and personalized way of giving that says, “This one is from Martha.”
On her birthday, will you join us as we celebrate the gifts she made with her own two hands, gifts that have outlived her and will surely outlive us all?
-CDB