Kathy T. Brown

A few years ago, my artificial Christmas tree had been standing up in the living room for a week, with its hundreds of multi-colored lights strung, ready and waiting to be decorated with ornaments. Procrastination and lack of time had prevented me from gathering up the ornaments and holiday decorations from the storage room downstairs. Finally, on a cold, gray December day, I carried all of my large red and green plastic storage boxes up from the basement and began the process of unwrapping my seasonal treasures from their year-long rest. I came upon an item carefully wrapped in white tissue paper and I slowly unwrapped it and realized it was the small red felt Christmas stocking my third grade school teacher, Mrs. Logeais, had given to me many years ago.

In fact, she had given each one of us, her young students, a little red stocking decorated in a simple holiday design…a white band at top with a green felt leaf of holly and six red felt berries and inside the stocking Mrs. Logeais had tucked a red and white striped candy cane. I was suddenly absorbed by this little red stocking and slowly sat down, right where I had been standing, in the middle of my living room floor still holding this years-old treasure gently between the palms of my hands. I thought of Mrs. Logeais now and how much she had meant to me when I was a shy, young girl in her third grade classroom. I was very quiet, attentive and incredibly respectful to the point of awkward shyness. I was too self-conscious, even when I knew the answers, to raise my hand to respond to her classroom questions but Mrs. Logeais would magically call upon me at those moments and pull the words from within me and I would hear my voice aloud and I would feel so very happy and smart. She was a firm teacher, direct with her instructions but loving and caring in her tone. Her wise eyes would sparkle as a loud gregarious laugh would resonate from her roundish body and her warm-hearted smile always made me feel valued and protected.

I loved her in my own young way and she helped me to find a voice, to raise my hand, and to know that I had something to offer. Now, on this December day many years later, I sat in silence on my living room floor “telling” Mrs. Logeais how much she meant to me. As I held my beautiful, beloved red stocking, I was surprised as wet tears slipped down my face…

The next day I read the Star Tribune and saw her obituary.

“Shelby Sophia Ann Logeais, born November 4th, 1936 in Meeker County, entered eternal life on December 10th, 2003, from complications of cancer.” I was still as I read the obituary’s words, which spoke of her life as a “gifted, dedicated and popular instructor whose joy it was to teach children”, children like me I thought.

All of a sudden the memory of my reaction a day earlier to the little red felt stocking came flooding back to me. I now understood why I had placed the stocking back into the white tissue paper, choosing not to display it…This year was different, this year my favorite teacher, Mrs. Logeais, had passed away. I had sat there on my living room floor on the very day she passed away and silently reminisced on how much she had meant to me as a young child and still as an adult and I know in my heart she heard my appreciative and grateful thoughts as she crossed over to eternal life on that cold, gray December day.

Mrs. Logeais, thank you for your wisdom, your laughter, your directives, your compassion and your smile…and I thank you for the little red felt Christmas stocking with the simple holiday design and the red and white striped candy cane you tucked inside so very long ago. You are etched into my heart forever.

With Love, Kathy Brown (nee Tschimperle)