Today while sitting in my classroom preparing to assess my school's little first graders...( I love six years olds...LOL) I glanced briefly at a poster that I had up in my classroom...Suddenly a single tear fell....Wow, you're probably thinking that gal Cy is such a cry baby and yes you're so right..I am a cry baby LOL...But see that poster is very special...

How can a tattered reading poster be so special. It says, "READING. Once you start you'll never stop." It has a little boy and his grandpa reading on the couch...It's beautiful. See, when others walk in my classroom, they may wonder why I have such a tattered poster hanging in a prominent place in my room. It is quite obvious that it's old compared to the other items in my classroom.

Well, that poster was in my mother's classroom when she died 20 years ago. Before school began that year in 1988, her former principal asked if I wanted to get any of her items. They had her items packed in a box...A box...22 years of being a teacher...such love and dedication dropped...in one single box.

Well, you can imagine I cried the whole time my sister Evelyn and I went through her box. I don't blame the teachers for getting what they wanted but I wished they would've asked first. In that box was my mom's last lesson plan book (all written in long hand..LOL) a few children's books and the poster.

Family, that poster has hung in my classroom for as long as I been a teacher...17 years and there isn't a day that I don't look at that poster and think about my mother and the legacy she left behind..I thank God for my mother and how she was my first teacher. She along with my father instilled a lifetime love for reading. I absolutely love reading and more importantly I love teaching children how to read...

20 years ago today, my mother stepped out of time and stepped into eternity. I miss her tremendously. This is truly a day of reflection and a day in which I will give thanks to God for my mother...a woman whose love for her family, friends and children...was endless.