Home  >> Stories  >> The Tale Spinner #2019-01

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IN THIS ISSUE

• In this Heroic Story, a pregnant woman helps a stranger
• Barbara Wear forwards a poem about greeting cards
• Catherine Nesbitt sends a warning to newly-wedded women
• Carol Shoemaker´s story is about a teacher who learned how to teach
• Irene Harvalias suggests an interesting site

Donna E. of Kentucky remembers

A LABORIOUS GIFT OF STRENGTH

A few years ago, I was Christmas shopping at one of the local malls. Although spirits were high, everyone I saw seemed exhausted. It was late in the season, and everyone seemed ready shop until they dropped. One woman in particular seemed closer to dropping than most of us.

There were several benches in a waiting area of the mall, but because of the holiday season, they were all taken. I watched as the woman, who was very pregnant and obviously due very soon, walked up. She leaned heavily on her husband. Seeing that all the benches were taken, she sat down wearily on the stone wall surrounding the area.

Her husband sat beside her, and I could see the look of concern on his face as he fussed over his wife. I also saw that her shoes were untied, a sure sign that her feet were swollen due to her pregnancy.

I was sitting close enough to hear her tell her husband that her feet were hurting her badly, and she didn´t know how much longer she could keep going on this particular trip. She seemed apologetic as she told him that they might have to make yet another trip to finish up with their shopping.

Suddenly, the woman jumped up and quickly headed for the mall entrance. Her husband followed her, asking her what was wrong. I was concerned as well, but thought it was probably none of my business.

When the woman reached the doors leading outside, I saw the reason for her rush. An elderly woman was struggling to hold the door open as she attempted to push a man in a wheelchair through it.

The pregnant woman held the door so that the older woman could push the wheelchair through. The older woman smiled gratefully and thanked her. The younger woman had put aside her own discomfort to help someone she saw who was in greater need.

Even though there were hundreds of other people around who could have helped, she was the only one who saw through her own aches and exhaustion to see that someone else was having problems. If anyone else even noticed, they did nothing to help. And although she was no longer close enough for me to hear what she said, I saw her smile sheepishly at her husband and shrug her shoulders. Her husband looked proud as he hugged her.

I´ve often wondered if anyone was as thoughtful to that woman in the months that followed, perhaps holding a door so she could push a baby stroller through it. She made me realize that no matter how tired and miserable we may be at any given time, there is still always something we can do to help someone in greater need.

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Barbara Wear found the following poem and has been saving it to share during the holidays. I´m late in putting it up, but better late than never:

WHAT´S A GREETING CARD?

It's a little piece of paper
That tells someone how you care.
It can be a ray of sunshine;
It can be a wish or prayer.

It can simply say "I Love You."
Or just say I understand.
It can be a little visit
Or the clasp of someone's hand.

It can be a word of comfort
When someone's heart is sad;
It can be a smile or chuckle
Making someone's heart feel glad.

It can keep folks close together
Even though they're far apart;
It can show someone you're thankful
From the bottom of your heart.

It can travel any distance
In all kinds of weather too,
And it has the magic something
That some big things never do.

Yes, it's just a piece of paper
And it costs no big amount,
But it proves that old saying
"It's the little things that counts.

Author Unknown.

Catherine Nesbitt forwards this story:

AFTER THE HONEYMOON

One evening, after the honeymoon, Bob was working on his Harley in the garage. His new wife was standing there by the bench watching him. After a long period of silence she finally said,

"Honey, I´ve just been thinking, now that we are married, maybe it´s time you quit spending so much of your time out here in your garage. You probably should also consider selling your Harley and all your welding equipment, along with your gun collection, and your fishing gear, and the boat, and lose all those stupid model airplanes, plus dump that vintage hot rod sports car, and your home brewing equipment..."

Bob got a horrified look on his face.

She said, "Darling, what´s wrong?"

He replied, "There for a minute, you were starting to sound like my ex-wife."

"Ex-wife!?" she screamed. "YOU NEVER TOLD ME YOU WERE MARRIED BEFORE!"

Bob replied, "I wasn´t."

Carol Shoemaker sent this story about

A TEACHER´S LEARNING EXPERIENCE

There is a story many years ago of an elementary teacher named Mrs. Thompson. As she stood in front of her fifth grade class on the very first day of school, she told the children a lie. Like most teachers, she looked at her students and said that she loved them all the same. But that was impossible, because there in the front row, slumped in his seat, was a little boy named Teddy Stoddard.

Mrs. Thompson had watched Teddy the year before and noticed that he didn´t play well with the other children, that his clothes were messy, and that he constantly needed a bath. And Teddy could be unpleasant. It got to the point where Mrs. Thompson would actually take delight in marking his papers with a broad red pen, making bold X´s and then putting a big "F" at the top of his papers.

At the school where Mrs.Thompson taught, she was required to review each child´s past records and she put Teddy´s off until last.

However, when she reviewed his file, she was in for a surprise. Teddy´s first grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is a bright child with a ready laugh. He does his work neatly and has good manners.... He is a joy to be around."

His second grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is an excellent student, well-liked by his classmates, but he is troubled because his mother has a terminal illness and life at home must be a struggle."

His third grade teacher wrote, "His mother´s death has been hard on him. He tries to do his best but his father doesn´t show much interest and his home life will soon affect him if some steps aren´t taken."

Teddy´s fourth grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is withdrawn and doesn´t show much interest in school. He doesn´t have many friends and sometimes sleeps in class."

By now, Mrs.Thompson realized the problem and she was ashamed of herself.

She felt even worse when her students brought her Christmas presents, wrapped in beautiful ribbons and bright paper, except for Teddy´s. His present was clumsily wrapped in the heavy brown paper that he got from a grocery bag. Mrs. Thompson took pains to open it in the middle of the other presents. Some of the children started to laugh when she found a rhinestone bracelet with some of the stones missing and a bottle that was one-quarter full of perfume.

But she stifled the children´s laughter when she exclaimed how pretty the bracelet was, putting it on, and dabbing some of the perfume on her wrist. Teddy Stoddard stayed after school that day just long enough to say, "Mrs. Thompson, today you smelled just like my Mom used to."

After the children left she cried. On that very day, she quit teaching reading, and writing, and arithmetic. Instead, she began to teach children.

Mrs. Thompson paid particular attention to Teddy. As she worked with him, his mind seemed to come alive. The more she encouraged him, the faster he responded. By the end of the year, Teddy had become one of the smartest children in the class and, despite her lie that she would love all the children the same, Teddy became one of her "teacher´s pets."

A year later, she found a note under her door from Teddy, telling her that she was still the best teacher he ever had in his whole life. Six years went by before she got another note from Teddy. He then wrote that he had finished high school, third in his class, and she was still the best teacher he ever had in his whole life.

Four years after that, she got another letter, saying that while things had been tough at times, he´d stayed in school, had stuck with it, and would soon graduate from college with the highest of honours. He assured Mrs. Thompson that she was still the best and favourite teacher he had ever had in his whole life.

Then four more years passed and yet another letter came. This time he explained that after he got his bachelor´s degree, he decided to go a little further. The letter said that she was still the best and favourite teacher he had ever had. But now his name was a little longer. The letter was signed, Theodore F. Stoddard, M.D.

The story doesn´t end there. You see, there was yet another letter that spring. Teddy said he´d met a girl and was going to be married. He explained that his father had died a couple of years ago and he was wondering if Mrs. Thompson might agree to sit in the place at the wedding that was usually reserved for the mother of the groom. Of course, Mrs. Thompson did. She wore that bracelet, the one with several rhinestones missing. And she made sure she was wearing the perfume that Teddy remembered his mother wearing on their last Christmas together.

They hugged each other, and Dr. Stoddard whispered in Mrs. Thompson´s ear, "Thank you, Mrs. Thompson, for believing in me. Thank you so much for making me feel important and showing me that I could make a difference."

Mrs. Thompson, with tears in her eyes, whispered back. She said, "Teddy, you have it all wrong. You were the one who taught me that I could make a difference. I didn´t know how to teach until I met you."

SUGGESTED SITES

Irene Harvalias sends the URL for a video of amazing hummingbirds:

This TED talk is about how companies like Facebook and Google get us to click on ads that are also used to organize our access to political and social information:

This Mythbusters site discusses four space myths that still dog the public´s understanding of outer space:

Dr. Eric Berg tackles the "water myth," which claims that the body needs eight glasses of water a day:

From the Good News Network comes this story from the UK of young Muslims waking up early to clean the streets after New Year´s celebrations:

One cat´s obsession with hunting birds lead to the invention that has saved hundreds of thousands of birds: