Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Mrs. Kracht

What is the capital of Nevada? Carson City!
What’s the capital of Washington? Olympia!
What’s the capital of Maine? Augusta!
I found out last week that my old fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Kracht, passed away a couple months ago at her home in Ferndale, Mich. I don’t remember many of my former teachers – I vaguely recall one from second grade, another from sixth grade, one from high school and a couple from college – but Mrs. Kracht stood out. She had innovative and fun ways of getting her students to learn, and to this day I remember competing in row races to learn all of the U.S. state capitals.
Mrs. Kracht would sit at her desk and announce a state (for example, New Mexico) at which time the first students in each of the six rows in her classroom would rush to the front blackboard, grab a piece of chalk, write Santa Fe on the board, then run back to the second student in their respective row and hand off the chalk – all while Mrs. Kracht was announcing the second state.
The pandemonium in the classroom was uproarious, and her students excelled. I still know all of the state capitals to this day.
Mrs. Kracht was a lady who exuded kindness in everything she did. Someone once told me that you should live so well that when you die, even the undertaker will be unhappy. Mrs. Kracht lived life as well as it can be lived.
The capital of West Virginia? It’s Charleston, Mrs. Kracht.
Heaven Is for Real
My mother read a book the other day entitled Heaven Is For Real, then called to chat about it.
“Kevin, I no longer have any anxiety about dying and going to heaven,” she said. “This is such a beautiful book. It brought me to tears every chapter.”
The true-story New York Times bestseller details small-town Nebraska pastor Todd Burpo, whose then-four-year-old son, Colton, suffered from an undiagnosed ruptured appendix. After emergency surgery, little Colton began describing people who were impossible for him to have seen or met, such as his miscarried sister who nobody had told him about, and his great grandfather who died 30 years before Colton was born.
“It’s so amazing that I’ve started reading it a second time,” my mom said yesterday.
End With a Joke
My Uncle Rich loves to tell jokes, and told me this one last week:
A man has six children and is very proud of his achievement. He is so proud of himself that he starts calling his wife “Mother of Six” in spite of her objections.
One night they go to a big party. The man decides it’s time to go home and shouts to his wife at the top of his voice across a crowded room, “Shall we go home, Mother of Six?”
His wife, irritated by her husband’s lack of discretion, shouts back:
“Anytime you’re ready, Father of Four!”

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