madamedeficit: (Default)
Wow.

Just a quick post, as it's nearly 11pm. I was out visiting family tonight when my sister got an email from someone from her old Advanced Higher English class, saying that the teacher was now terminally ill.

This teacher taught me for four years, during which time, her fantastic teaching motivated me to move from average grades to top of my class, leading me to achieve an A band 1 in my Higher and an Advanced Higher. Her teaching also inspired me to choose to study English Literature at University level, and when everything fell apart for me, it was partially her influence that encouraged me to go back to University and complete my English degree.

She encouraged me to read my now favourite book, Jane Eyre for my Advanced Higher dissertation, sparking a passion for Victorian Literature, which I wrote my University dissertation on and am now studying at Masters level.

I always thought I should go back and visit her, to let her know what she'd done for me, but now she's dying of cancer. I have this really vivid memory of her, thin and severe in a black blazer, leaning over my desk to talk to me, pointing at words on my paper with a long yellowed nail, smelling strongly of cigarettes and coffee. I don't think that memory will ever leave me.

x L x

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madamedeficit

October 2011

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