To Touch a Life Forever

Today I had one of my most amazing experiences since I started writing to the troops. There was an envelope in the mailbox marked "free mail," which always gets me excited in the first place. I didn't recognize the name in the return address, so I figured it was a thank you from someone who had received one of my card swap cards from another Anysoldier supporter. When I opened the card, however, I got an even bigger surprise. The note was from a female Air Force captain, and she wrote:
"It is a very small world. I am from Wisconsin, too--not far from you. I grew up in Westboro, WI. This may be a strange question, but were you and Fred teachers in Rib Lake? Your names are familiar and similar to two teachers I had in the past. It would have been over 20 years ago, and I would have been known as Terry O------ back then. I joined the military over 22 years ago. Thank you from all of us at the Regional Contracting Center, Mosul, Iraq."
WOW!! Yes, I remember Terry! She lived only a mile or so from Westboro, which is where we lived, too, when we were teaching, and where we still own a house. She was a student in my freshmen English class, and Fred had her as a drivers' ed. student. It makes me proud to learn that this girl from a tiny town has made a career for herself in the Air Force--and that she remembers us from her high school years.
Terry is stationed in Colorado when she's not deployed, and she doesn't get to come home to Wisconsin as often as she'd like. She ended her letter saying, "Please drop a line if you get the time....Wisconsin is so beautiful in the fall!" I recognize homesickness when I see it, and Terry will soon be receiving a package from home--with some pictures of the gorgeous trees here in Rhinelander enclosed in the letter.
It was wonderful to touch the life of a student when I was teaching. To affect one of those lives again so many years later is a joy to my heart.
Please support our troops!!

**Happy 50th birthday today to my dear friend Mary in China!! She may have enjoyed the 16 days when she was younger than me, but they are over now!!!