Mrs. Lenahan

I use Instagram for purely personal reasons--I like art; I like looking at attractive images. I suppose many of us who use this particular social media site could say the same. For the past year, I have been following a print maker on the 'gram whose work I really enjoy. She posts under a moniker related to her subject matter, so I never knew who she was, but I did know that she was based in my hometown. 

A few days ago she posted a series of images related to her personal life. The first one shown was a snap of her with her mother. I have to tell you that you could have knocked me over with a feather when I looked at the image and saw that her mom was my kindergarten teacher from nearly fifty years ago. I hadn't actually seen Mrs. Lenahan since 1980, but in the photo she looked just the same then as now. 

What I remember most about Mrs. L was that she was just so great with us kids. She was patient, kind and fun-loving. I've always had fond memories of her and to see that she just so happens to be the mom of an artist whose work I really dig is wild. 

Strictly speaking, Mrs. L wasn't my primary kindergarten teacher. There were two kindergarten classrooms at my elementary school. The classrooms were adjoining and one could move freely between rooms when the large, accordion door dividing the spaces was open. We kids from the other class would go over to Mrs. Lenahan's class for art instruction. I remember during one such session Mrs. L had us create finger paintings using construction paper and chocolate pudding. -messy, tasty and fun!

I asked the artist to tell her mom that I said, 'Hi!' not expecting her to remember me, but she did! Hearing that made me feel good, I have to say.