Thank you YunZhang Wu for this very special remembrance!
“I am 86 and came from China. I am among the last students taught by Ms. Irene. I first met her about 5 years ago in the Thursday English class in the library for one semester. She left a very deep impression on me. Her teaching is both rigorous and light-hearted, making it easy for people to remember. I enjoy listening to her class. I missed the teachers and classmates in the class very much during the more than three years of the pandemic. By chance, I reconnected with Ms. Irene again on WeChat through my classmate Zhang Ying. We communicated frequently from then on. She asked me to communicate with her in English and gave me a lot of encouragement. I regained that kind and warm feeling. Later, after she went through the arduous work of moving, as soon as she settled down, she started giving us English classes on Zoom. I was worried that since she was old and had just moved, giving us lessons would increase her burden, but she said no, in fact, it was a pleasure, and she was ready to continue teaching.
She asked us to only speak English during class and not take notes. After class, she sent us her class notes. In this way, she spent more energy to let us learn better and let us ask her questions at any time. She spoke extremely clearly; even though my hearing had worsened with age, I could still hear her very well. In class, we communicated about our daily life, and she taught us many life skills. When our speech was imperfect, she could always understand it and guide it into the correct way of expression. We enjoyed the classes so much that we often made it last long past its end time. After class, she and I expressed in emails how nice that we have met again after many years, and we like the nice feeling of our small class very much.
Our classes had to stop for a while, as she suffered from tendonitis and her fingers were swollen, and later I fell and fractured my wrist. We continued communications, later she suggested we continue with a class of reading and writing. She encouraged us to write comments after reading the inspirational stories she gave us, and she corrected every assignment very carefully and gave me a lot of encouragement.
Just a week before her death, we resumed classes on zoom, and we saw her kind and friendly face again, full of energy and radiant. Who would have thought that this would be the last time we saw her? Even during her last days, she was full of concerns for others. In the class, she asked me with concern about the recovery of my wrist, and took out a rubber ball to show me a method to exercise my grip strength. She also added me to a WeChat group for buying fresh vegetables. But then I received a WeChat message from her that she was hospitalized. She did not say the reason for her hospitalization, but said that she was happy that I could buy fresh vegetables now. She always cared about others.
I never expected that she would leave us so suddenly. I couldn't accept this sudden change. Scenes of past events with her came to mind, and I thought of the story “Above and Beyond” she sent to us. In the story, the little girl tied a red balloon with a letter and sent it to her grandfather in heaven, expressing the feeling of her inability to saying goodbye to grandpa. I feel like that little girl, how I want to talk to her again... Although she no longer teaches us English, she has shown us the excellent qualities of being a human being and the meaning of life, which is worth learning throughout my life. She will always live in my heart.”
Respond
0
Share with others
Donate in memory
