The Median Sib

On the way home from work this afternoon, I heard on the news that the infamous Mary Winkler got out of jail today on bond.  She will be working in a dry cleaners - and I’ll bet the business at that dry cleaners picks up for at least a few days while people satisfy their curiosity about her.  I can just see the people coming in to drop off dry cleaning while straining their necks to look around and see if they can spot her.  Unfortunately, she has become a “person of interest” to many people. 

The radio news report also stated that Mary Winkler had rescinded her earlier testimony. 

Here’s the online version:

Winkler walked out of the jail between two of her defense attorneys, keeping her head down and refusing to answer questions. Her father, Clark Freeman of Knoxville, drove her away from the jail.

As part of her bond, Winkler is required to live with friends in McMinnville, 65 miles southeast of Nashville, where she will work at a dry cleaners and be supervised by the state probation office.

Defense attorneys Steve Farese said Winkler is eager to see her three young daughters, who are living with their paternal grandparents, but no arrangements have been made for visits.

“Her emotional state is fragile. Certainly she’s apprehensive,” Farese said.

In a statement to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, Winkler said she shot her husband after a night of arguing over finances and other family problems.

The couple had gotten tangled up along with her husband in a swindle known as an advance-fee fraud, or the “Nigerian scam,” in which victims are told that a sweepstakes prize or some other riches are waiting for them if they send in money to cover the processing expenses, her lawyers have said.

No one has said how much money the Winklers may have lost, or what role the financial strain might have played in the shooting.

Defense lawyers have implied that Mary Winkler was emotionally abused by her husband.

Maybe we’ll learn more soon - maybe not.  It’s a sad, sad case, though. 

After over 25 years of teaching elementary school, I’ve learned that former students pop up unexpectedly.  And recalling names is tricky, to say the least.

This past Sunday RT and I took the two granddaughters to a little community restaurant for lunch after church.  I was busy handling the girls and didn’t really pay much attention to the teenager who was refilling the trays on the buffet line.  Suddenly she said the words that strike fear in teachers’ hearts: “You were my fifth grade teacher.”

Other elementary teachers will understand that fear.  To the student, the teacher pretty much looks the same as he/she did back when.  However, teenagers and adults seldom look like they did in elementary school.  Sure, there are a few that you recognize immediately.  But most kids grow and change during adolescence and end up looking quite different than they did during their cute elementary stage.  The girl with bouncy pigtails becomes a teenager with a short punk hairstyle.  The skinny kid beefs up and becomes a muscular football player.

Back to Sunday lunch.  Upon hearing the words, I looked up at the girl.  Definitely high school age - long blondish hair, but with absolutely NO other “recognizability factors” for me.   Throughout the years that I taught fifth grade, I probably had dozens of blondish girls in my class.   She could have been any of them.  Jennifer?  Courtney?  Stacey?  Lisa?  It was no use - I couldn’t risk a guess.  “Hi,” I said, “Tell me your name.”

“Lindsey,” she replied.

BINGO!  God was smiling on me because I placed her immediately.  I had taught more than one Lindsey - but this could be only one of them.  Whew!  Kids expect former teachers to remember them.  I repeated her name and added her last name  - making sure to say her last name clearly so she’d know I knew who she was.  She was a student who came to our school new in fifth grade, and I spent a good chunk of time that year helping her settle into a new school and a new set of friends.  That transition is often a difficult one.

We chatted for a few minutes and she told me about being in high school and working at the restaurant on weekends and the activities she enjoys now.  After my family ate, we chatted more since by then she was working the cash register.  It was pleasant, and I still smile at the thought of how the little awkward fifth grader had grown into such a mature teenager.  

However, it also reminded me that I probably pass former students fairly often since I still live in the area where I’ve taught the past 19 years.   Kids I had in fourth grade back in 1987 are now 28 years old.  I probably wouldn’t recognize any of them.  And the third graders I taught back in Georgia in 1976 are now in their LATE thirties.  I remember Dexter and Allen - two little boys in that third grade class.  Such sweet and mischievous little boys who are grown men now.  I wonder what they’re doing and where they are.

I feel very old now.