it was my first married christmas, the first one away from my family. it was also my second year of teaching high school english to 9th graders. eighteen inches of snow was on the ground, and there was a tremendous rush to finish the unit i was teaching before the break as we had lost so much time due to snow. i was already stressed out beyond belief when things actually got worse.
the house caught on fire.
our puppy, sierra, began to bark and i awoke thinking it was 6 a.m. and she wanted to go out. in fact, it was 11:30 at night and i smelled smoke. i jumped out of bed screaming "FIRE! FIRE!" while my husband went searching for the fire, i went first and threw the cat, Santini, into the snow on the deck, and then the puppy out the front door. i found my husband in the bathroom putting out the burning wall over the toilet. i had forgotten to put out a christmas candle and it had caught the towels on fire.
we got the fire out, and slept in a smoky, cold house (we opened up the windows to get the smell out and awoke as human popsicles.) but the house fire was the last straw, and i proceeded to have a pre-christmas meltdown that ended up lasting for weeks. every day it was all i could do to get up and go to work. i was barely functioning and just walking through each day like a schizophrenic half zombie, half happy whirlwind. staying active and positive for 8 hours everyday was one of the hardest things i have ever done. i was living for the christmas break.
finally the last day arrived, and after the last student had left my room, i was standing behind my desk thankful that i could now go home and have a complete nervous breakdown! however, before i could pack up my things and leave, there was a knock on the door and there stood The Packman.
since september donald packard had been "occupying" a desk on the front row of one of my 9th grade english classes. his biggest contribution most days was drool on the desk or an occasional "huh?" when i went by and knocked on the top of his head! a man of little or no words, "packman" as i had named him, was standing at my door, the last student i expected to see that day. he also was talking, saying "merry christmas" and he handed me a box that clearly he had wrapped himself...a shoe box.
i opened the package and in it were a pair of bright red printed Vans tennis shoes in my size. this was a gift i did not expect, but one i have truly never forgotten. it may have been one of the best gifts i ever got, and it came at a time when i desperately needed something positive.
you see, one day the packman had showed up in a pair of the same shoes. because they were so completely out of character, i had stopped class that day and said "packman, where did you get those shoes?" he stuck his head up and mumbled "my mother bought them for me." it seemed that she had gone to a shoe outlet nearby and i assume was looking for something bright to wake up her boy! i thought the shoes were cool, and said offhandedly "hey packman, i gotta have a pair of those shoes! if you mother goes back there again, tell her to get me a pair of those in size 9 1/2 !" off i went down the aisles handing out papers, and packman put his head back down and went to sleep.
you never know when an angel will show up at just the right moment, and the last person i thought would be an angel would be the packman. yet there he was. he handed me the "happy shoes" as i called them, and off he went.
i don't know where donald is now. i know he graduated and went to college. he woke up after 9th grade and actually took my journalism class even though he wasn't much good at it. i have often thought of him over the years and the act of kindness that he never know would have so many ripples. over the last 18 years i have kept the shoes. i used to wear them every friday and they got quite a reputation. over the years they have gotten a little worn, but i always wear them the last day of school before the christmas holiday and tell my story of the packman and how he was a stone in a pond, and what a ripple he created.
the tradition continues. i wore the shoes to school yesterday and a whole new generation of kids who were babies when the packman gave me the shoes are now asking about where i got them! what i tell them that sometimes you never know what an impact you might have on another person's life. in this way, i try and "pay it forward" each year by reminding my students that a single act of kindness may turn out to change another person's life.
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