The other night when I wrote the really long sentence that I made the run-on comment about, it made me think of my high school English teacher, Mrs. Billye Crawford. I remembered a note that she had added to the margin of one of the free writings I did in class. This particular writing I think all I did was complain. It was just one negative thought after another with very little in the way of punctuation. Her note to me was a list of things that bugged her. Topping the list was the repeated use of run-on sentences by a student that she knew had better grammar skills than she was showing. I've long since forgotten the other items in her list. This happened over 25 years ago but it stuck with me over the years. It made an impact on me. At the time I didn't realize that she was one of the best teachers I would ever have.
I found out yesterday that Mrs. Crawford had just passed away. Surprisingly, it was Facebook where I found out. One person had posted the news and many others had commented about this wonderful teacher we all had. We are all better people for having known her. I'm sure the news of her death brought sadness to all of her former students at Tuckerman High School. She was very loved and respected.
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