The sweetest piece of fan mail arrived today from Indiana. Tommy, a Catholic dad and campus security officer at a Catholic college, was very moved by Molly McBride and the Plaid Jumper. He wrote to me that reading about the school uniforms brought back some very clear memories:
“I remember one incident when we were out playing, this big boy was mocking me, making fun of me behind my back. This was before I got my hearing aid–I was deaf. But this girl (God bless her!) jumped on that boy and knocked him down. Her name was Nancy, but I secretly called her my Joan of Arc. From then on nobody ever poked fun at me again. Nancy followed me throughout school, all the way up to graduation. I keep my graduation picture up in the computer room, and there’s Nancy to remind me of 3rd Grade so many years ago at Immaculate Conception School.”
And just like that, I could picture a flash of plaid as a brave, heroic girl named Nancy rescued poor Tommy. But in my mind, there were streaming locks of unruly auburn curls mixed with the mess of gray-and-navy. It looked something like this:
“Maybe, Jean, you can write a Molly McBride story about bullies in school.”
God bless YOU, Tommy. I’ll see what I can do.
