Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Memories of a Meeting...From Two Perspectives

When we meet someone who is going to completely change our life, we very rarely realise it. I certainly didn't realise the first time I met Rob that I was meeting the man of my dreams, my future partner and the father of my child. I would like to share the story of our first meeting with you.

Back in 2011, I was working as a Literacy Support teacher at a small and friendly primary school in the city. In the second week of the first term of the year, I was asked to do relief teaching on one of the Prep classes on the Friday of that week (my day off) which I happily accepted. In the class was a five year old girl named Mikayla, all blonde hair, gorgeous grin and chirpiness, who I had started working with the previous week as she needed a bit of extra help with her literacy skills. 

The first time I met Mikayla, she informed me that her daddy was "very special. He can't see, and so he has a special dog called Jasper to help him. You should meet my daddy!" She also told me that she lived with Mummy for some of the week and Daddy for the rest of the time. On the Friday, she was excited to discover that I was to be her teacher for the day and told me, "I'm at Daddy's today! You can meet him when he picks me up!" 

The day passed in a blur of 23 busy five and six year olds and soon enough it was home time. After I dismissed the students, most ran outside to where their parents were waiting, but one of the fathers- who I instantly noticed was very tall- came into the room, holding the hand of an adorable little blonde boy who looked just like Mikayla, and also holding the harness of a Seeing Eye Dog. Mikayla ran to him for a hug and I followed.

"Hello! I'm Karen. I was Mikayla's relief teacher today. You must be her dad," I said. The man smiled and held out his hand, saying "Nice to meet you- I'm Rob, this is Harry and this is Jasper." I shook his hand, impressed not only by how warm and friendly he was, but that he had held out his hand at the exact height to shake mine. (I was to learn later that he is very good at working out people's heights based on their voices.) We had a little chat about how Mikayla had been that day and how I was a new teacher at the school and had been working with Mikayla on her literacy. I bid them goodbye and watched Rob walk away holding onto his children and Jasper. What a nice man, I thought, and what a good father he seems to be.

I am now going to do something I have not yet done here, and hand the reins of my blog over to someone else temporarily...in this case, Rob himself as he would like to share his own memories of our first meeting and the friendship that began that day.

"When I first met Karen I was picking my daughter up from Prep. I was quite surprised when she came over to me where I waited for MJ inside the classroom and introduced herself. We shook hands and she said that Mikayla-Jade had told her a lot about me and it was a pleasure to meet me.
 
I've often looked back at that moment and thought how warm and caring she is. For a relief teacher to go out of their way to meet parents and to put so much heart into their work is really not often found.
 
It was such a pleasure to see her other times throughout the year and I was always greeted by a warm smile. Later in the year when my son Harry began attending pre-kinder once a week he also had the privilege to have Karen as his teacher where we would often sit down and chat. These were short minutes no longer than ten but were really pleasant and I think we both felt comfortable with each other’s company.
 
Jasper even got his trotters in by getting the occasional off-harness time for a tummy rub and Karen being the big dog lover that she is found a new love interest.
 
It was very fortunate for me that months later and after frequently bumping into one another we talked more and found that we got along so easily and started to spend more and more time together.
 
Fast forward till now and we are living together, expecting our first child together and really in a happy place.
 
Kaz is my best friend, a beautiful and supportive partner whom I share everything with and hold nothing back. I love how she reads my expression and always looks for the best. She has so much to give and really lives life never holding anything back. She is a really important part of our lives and I am so happy we are in love with each other and are building an incredible life together."


My life was very different then. If someone had told me then that within the next two years I would be not only living with Rob and very much in love, but also helping him to raise his children and expecting our own baby together, I would have been skeptical, to say the least. But that's the direction my life took and I am glad to say it was the right direction and I am very happy with my little family. I am adored, cherished, cared for and loved. I am happy and feel like my dreams are all coming true. Rob may be legally blind, but no one has ever seen me so clearly and for that, I will always be grateful. He may not be able to see my face, but he always knows when I am smiling and smiles straight back at me, just like he did the first time we met.


1 comment:

  1. Bautifl story Karen, i'm so glad that its your reality, you deserve it! xx

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