#40: Mrs. Carpenter

FROM PIP;

Wow!   Check this out from Amanda.

When I heard this story my jaw dropped.   I so want to meet Mrs. Carpenter.

I think of that Hugh Grant voice-over opening I love so much from “Love, Actually”.

“Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think of the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport… and I will think of Mrs. Carpenter in Florida…(pip insert but in Hugh Grant’s voice of course)    Seems to me that love is everywhere.  If you look for it I have a sneaky feeling that you’ll find love actually is all around.”

From Love Actually

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUoxXpqof8A

Amanda Posa       amandaposaj@gmail.com 

Mrs. Carpenter 

I wrote blog #27 about the kindergarten class I am interning with. As I mentioned, the kids don't have the widest selection of books, or the most pristine furniture, and they don't have perfect families or backgrounds and I worry about their life after school that I probably don't know enough about BUT… I do know one thing for sure. And that’s that they DO have an incredible teacher to learn with every day. 

Mrs. Carpenter is about 50-years old. She has short gray hair because she says, “The highlights just don't do it no more.” She rocks the gray, and it goes with her gray-blue eyes. 

I could go into the many selfless deeds she’s done for others that are seemingly countless. I could tell you what I witnessed during a lockdown drill and the way she looked the kids in their eyes telling them she’d give up her life to protect theirs. I could describe to you all the times she bought clothes or shoes for her students when they needed, or the way she so gently treats one boy with severe behavioral issues. 

But there’s one particular incident that may say all you need to know. 

Mrs. Carpenter was robbed a few years ago by a twenty-year old boy in her town. 

He stole her children’s bikes.

He stole the generator used for her father’s catheter in case of an emergency. 

He broke into their car and left marks all over it. 

My fear of break ins and robberies must've shown across my face as she told me this because then she started to slightly downplay the incident. 

“Well…he must’ve been drunk. He must’ve been. I’d met the kid before. I really don't think he’d do it sober.”

Her and her husband soon learned that this boy was beginning to get his life back on track rather shortly after this crime. 

So... she decided not to press charges. 

Not only did she decide not to press charges, but she wrote his letter of recommendation for college. 

You can just imagine the kind of person she is. 

Amanda's first-person bio:

I am currently in my third year at the University of Florida. I am studying Education and Sustainability Studies as I have a deep passion for both teaching children and for caring for the environment. I seek work, people, and environments that align with my core values of empathy, compassion, and conscientiousness. My biggest joy is when I can be of sincere help to someone or something that needs me. Whether that means putting in great efforts to go green, supporting the earth and its resources, or opening my ears to listen and arms to hug someone who needs support, I always find my motivation when I see betterment due in part by my actions.