K’s Namesake

    When I was 15, I received word that my Sunday School teacher from my old town had died of Leukemia.  I took a long walk with my  Mom, and talked it out.  We both sniffled a lot, it was a chilly, rainy day.  I sat down on a rock on the fishing platform in the middle of the causeway through the reservoir and announced that I would name my first daughter after her.  My Mother may have smiled into her glove at that point, but she didn’t point out that first I’d need a husband, then I’d need to have a girl, and that the husband would have to agree to the name, as he might also have beloved, admired ladies to name her after, she would after all be his little girl too.  Details, Details.
    My teacher K was from the Chicago area, incredibly creative, cheerful, thurough and persistent.  We complained that the curriculum was too juvenile.    She wrote us a new one.  We knew she’d called our bluff when she showed up at class the next week with an armload full of reference books!  By the time we’d finished the book of Ruth, we had outlined it, drawn maps of Moab, cross referenced kinsman redeemers, and watched a reel to reel movie from Moody Bible Institute.  She hosted us at the Nyack College cafeteria, and at asleep over in her dorm’s RDA apartment.  We fried dough nuts for breakfast, using a tube of biscuit dough as our base.
    When our ultrasound last Fall indicated a girl, my husband told me, "Well, I guess you get to name her K."
    I sent a birth announcement to my teacher’s parents, after some sleuthing to find their address. 
    Today there was a cheerful box in our mailbox, with stickers on it.  The same sort of stickers my teacher used to give our class.  Sure enough, it was from her parents.  They sent K a pretty outfit with pansys printed on it – DH loves to see K in all shades of purple by the way – the first  K’s own name plaque from her girlhood bedroom with a verse on it about her name’s meaning. 
    They wrote us a long card about how surprised and pleased they were, with some stories about K.  Come to find out, their K was named for their pastor’s wife, who had had a lot of influence on them!  So our K is in a line of girls named for Christian women who have influenced others.  May the line continue.