This is long. I'm warning you.

Our English conversation school NEO is small, not big like those nationwide chain schools.

But I've always known that we're really fortunate to have great students. And I mean, great students.

Some people who choose those big chains to socialize, but our students aren't like that because our school is small. But because of that, they’re sincere, caring and most of all, they help us.

This student came to our school more than a decade ago, when NEO was still new and immature, running in an old house that didn't look very attractive from outside. Yet she stayed with us for many years. She was quite active and outgoing for her age, and I liked her a lot being straightforward. She was the same age as my dad and a lot of things reminded me of him, born in the year of the Rat. Can't help doing this and that, here and there, busy like a little mouse. 

When I got my first son after spending two months in the hospital bed, she came to see me at the maternity clinic.

Her lesson at NEO was Thursday afternoons and she specifically cleared her schedule for the evening so that she could babysit my son after her lesson. Her staying helped me focus on work, not bothered by the baby crying. 

She'd hold Tatsuki in her arms for hours and hours. No joke, for hours until it got dark. So sometimes I had to double check with her that she didn't need to feel obligated to do me a favor. But she'd always answer me, "Don't worry about me, no problem. I raised my own like this. Two of them. And he looks really peaceful. So you go do what you have to do."

She was like my third mom.

We had some potluck parties at our students' places and she was always one of the best cooks. She said she was born in Dalian, China, or her family lived in China during the last war and moved back to Japan. Her Chinese cooking was something I loved.

More than once, she made me earrings with non allergic material because I’m allergic to metal. There're just too many small stories about her.

It was about several years ago that she moved out of Okayama city and stopped coming to our place. And a few years after that, I heard that she got sick. No one gets any younger, I understand it, but hearing her sick was a bit of shock. I wanted to visit her but she kindly declined it. 

Last Wednesday night we got a message from her son-in-law, that she is really sick. I had a bad feeling and kept thinking about her the next day, and the next day. It was Friday afternoon right before my private lesson when Dave rushed in and told me that her funeral had just finished. She passed away on Wednesday.

My student was waiting for her lesson to start, and poor her, she ended up waiting for me to stop crying as well as listening to the reason why I bursted into tears. My mind was a total blank for the rest of the day.

Then there was a knock on the door and this student showed up again, handing me a rather big bag with some containers in it. It was a beautiful salad she made to cheer me up. She knew how much of a big eater I am. My boys loved the salad and I had to explain the whole story.

It still makes me cry as I type this, but I should be happy to know once again that we've got awesome students.

Minori-san, RIP.