I met E K Pru at a crowded middle school in Albany five years ago. Her teacher Kathy Sosa raved about what a fantastic student and human being she was. Kathy was right on the beam; I have met few people in my life as poised,  gracious, and hard-working as she was.

Fresh from years of horror, slaughter, genocide flight, and years in a refugee camp, Eh K Pru has mastered English, was a straight-A student and was planning to be an engineer or physician. Whatever this young woman wants to do, I thought, she will do.

Kathy pleaded with me for help in getting Kathy to a private school where she could get the tutoring, stimulation, and support she deserved. I jumped in. We got Eh K Pru into the Albany Academy on a generous tuition and raised the rest of the money she needed to stay in the school for four years.

I’ve raised a lot of money for the refugee kids, and we got almost a dozen into good private schools in the Albany area.

There are no strings attached to this support, and  I always back away from their lives to give these kids privacy and the space they deserve. They’ve suffered enough.

I want nothing for it and expect nothing for it, and neither do the people who helped raise tuition money for many of these children.

Still, I won’t lie; I was deeply touched when this gift came in the mail.

 

Eh K Pru is the only one who ever invited me to graduation and today sent me a gift, a shopping bag she made for herself,  and a photograph of her after graduation. I never expected to hear from any of these children.

I will never forget Eh K Pru; she is an amazing young woman, glowing with courage, faith, piercing intelligence,  grace, and honor.

I never heard a word of complaint or anger come out of her, and she had much more reason to complain than most of the people I hear doing it.

What an honor to help her live her life, which was marked by tragedy and pain. It does make you want to cry.

I will cherish this bag and keep it as a symbol of what it means to help a child become what they want to be and were meant to be. There is no feeling quite like it, not in my life.

Thanks, Eh K Pru, for your gift and thanks.

I know you got into the college you wanted to get into and will go off this Fall to your new life, the life you imagined, worked so hard for, and so richly deserve.

I also like that because you want to meet me before going. I agree. Kathy Sosa and I will figure out the details. I’m thinking of lunch in Albany.

And thanks for my shopping bag, made with your own hands. It is a treasure to me. And thanks to you, Katho, a true angel and everything a great teacher should be.