Tuesday, January 17, 2017
My sincere sympathies and prayers to your family. Your mom unknowingly helped shape my career. Vinny, I don't know if you remember but it was the summer of 1973. Your mom heard there was an opening for an aide at the Waterbury Regional Center. She had you pass the info onto me and because of her influence, I became an aide there for the summer. It was the summer before college and I was trying to decide between going into regular education or special education. After a summer of working with special needs students, I decided that my strength was in regular ed. I became a first grade teacher and taught for 36 years before retiring in 2014. Over the years, I had many special ed students in my classes and I really think the experience I had that summer helped me, help them. I always appreciated your mom for giving me that experience right when I needed it. My thoughts are with you today and hope the wonderful memories you have of your mom sustain you in the days and weeks to come.
