I met the mother of one of our participants at Sky Harbor the morning that we left for Ireland. Ashley McCleve is our student, and her mother is Julia McCleve. When Julia introduced herself, I said that her name was familiar. That’s when I learned that she had been on the Gilbert School Board while my mother was still the high school librarian.
When I told Julia that I was Mary Warren’s daughter, she got tears in her eyes. We reminded ourselves of mother’s last years there and her epic fight against one of the other teachers at the high school. He started a campaign to collect books for the library and was bringing in all sorts of trash – outdated encyclopedias and history books and the like – and expected her to accept them into the library. It was very stressful for her, but I thought at the time that her rage may have kept her alive for a couple more years.
Ashley told me later that she’d heard stories about my mother when she was growing up. I can’t wait to talk to Julia when I get back. I’d very much like to hear the stories she tells about my mom.
I stepped on to the plane with the blessing of having met someone who knew and loved my mother. And although the plane trip was rough, who knows how much worse it might have been without the benefit of that blessing!
The picture at the top is Ashley McCleve and my colleague Chas Moore admiring the flowers outside a monastery on our walking tour of Athlone.
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