Day 41: Gayle

When my daughter was about a year old I wanted to start working a few hours a week.  I began to look around for a daycare provider with whom I felt comfortable leaving her. By some miracle, I was referred to Gayle.  I think that that was one of my luckiest moments.  I called Gayle and she told me that she would only take children aged 2 and older, but she invited me to stop by for a visit.  While there, I noticed that the children in her charge were all actively playing and seemed to get along. Gayle engaged my daughter in a conversation and decided that she could take her into her care.

A few weeks later, when I went to pick up my daughter, Gayle told me that she had bit another child.  “Oh no.”  I thought, this is when Gayle tells me that my daughter can’t come back to daycare.  But it was only a few moments later when Gayle said,”You know, he had it coming.  He was tormenting her and she is too young to use her words to tell him to stop and so she bit him.”  We were not kicked out but I did have to have a talk with my daughter about not biting.  And I know that my daughter loved her time with Gayle.

Several years later, after a move to Portland and back, I was looking for a daycare again, this time for my son, and thought of Gayle.  By some strange miracle, I found out that we now lived just one block apart.  I brought my son over to Gayle’s and he seemed at home right away.  What I forgot to mention is that Gayle has a Master’s degree in Art and she has created some incredibly beautiful works of art – sculptures, paintings, drawings.  Imagine the lessons that the children in her care received!

One day my son brought home a piece of construction paper with tiny bones glued to it.  I asked him about it and he told me that the bones were from a bird.  I then asked where the bones came from.  He told me that they came from an owl pellet.  What is an owl pellet?  It is the dried remains the owl has excreted (the bones and other things that it could not digest). Wow.  I was so very happy that Gayle was willing to find owl pellets and break them up so that my son could find these bones.  I can (almost) guarantee you that he would not have learned that lesson from me!

Tonight I brought Gayle an asparagus and pepper quiche.  I thought she might appreciate a dinner since she spends so much time looking after other people. I am so very grateful that she was there to be a positive influence in the lives of my children.  We were lucky indeed.