Hey everyone, Michael and Jasmine here. You were probably expecting the final episode
in our 20th anniversary series today, but that's actually going to drop in your feed
next week.
Because we just heard an interview that happened this past weekend on Sunday that we really
wanted to share.
And it's in keeping with the theme of then and now that we've been working with all season.
It starts with an older story and ends with an update.
Back in 2012, John Cruey sat down with his third grade teacher, Cecille Doyle.
John was in Mrs. Doyle's class back in 1958. And that was a hard year for John.
His mother had been seriously ill and she died just before Christmas.
Decades later, John tracked down Mrs. Doyle for this conversation.
We talked about decorating the Christmas tree when I came home from school that day.
I walked into the living room and my aunt was there and she said, well, honey, mommy passed
away this morning.
And I remember at my mother's wake, someone in my family came to me and said, Johnny, your
teachers here.
When I found out she died, it could certainly relate to that because when I was 11, my
own father died.
And you just don't know how you're going to go on without that person.
When I returned to school, you waited until the other children left the room at the end
of the day and you told me that you were there if I needed you and you bent over and kissed
me on the head.
It was really the only time someone said to me, I know what you're feeling and I know
what you're missing.
And I felt in a very real way that things really would be okay.
John, I really loved you as a student and I'm so glad that I could be there with you
for that time.
Many years later, when I became a teacher, I started to think more and more about you and
I started to think to myself, here I am with a memory of a teacher who changed my life
and I've never told her that.
And that's why I finally wrote this letter.
Deerimus's Doyle, if you are not the Cecile Doyle who taught English at Emerson School
and Carnegie New Jersey, that I'm embarrassed and you can disregard the sentiments that follow.
My name is John Crueett and I was in your third grade class during the 1958-1959 school
year.
Two days before Christmas, my mother passed away and you told me that you were there if
I needed you.
I hope life has been as kind to you as you were to me.
God bless you always with great fondness, John.
And your letter could not have come at a better time because my husband had Parkinson's
and he was going downhill and I had just come home from the hospital and I read this beautiful
letter and I just was overwhelmed.
Well, the funny thing is when I finally wrote to you again after 54 years, I typed a letter
I was afraid my penmanship wasn't going to meet your standards.
Well after all this time, this is Doyle, all I can say to you is thank you.
John, what can I say?
I'm just glad that we made a difference in each other's life.
That's Cecille Doyle with her former third grade student, John Crueett.
This is Doyle died in 2019.
She was 88 years old.
Just this past weekend, John sat down for another story core interview with a different
member of the Doyle family.
Cecille's daughter, Alison.
When did you first learn about me?
I'd written to your mother and two days after that, you contacted me and then I found out
that you were actually with us during that experience, but we couldn't see you because
you hadn't actually been born yet, but you were on the way.
Right.
I was there with you.
That's so the connection started back then.
That's right.
My relationship with you is very important to me.
Not just because you're an extension of your mother, but because all those years I was
away from your mother, 54 years, I didn't know if she was being taken care of.
I didn't know if she was being loved.
And when I met you for the very first time and realized that all these years you had
loved her the way you did, it made me feel so much better.
Do you remember the day we actually had the reunion?
Well, it was after Dad passed and at that point, she was going a little bit into her own
decline.
Eventually she would develop vascular dementia, but to see her reaction, to see you standing
in a doorway with the flowers and approaching one another.
And she remembered you so much, she remembered teaching you, and instinctively she gave you
a kiss on the forehead.
It was an absolutely unbelievable feeling that I had.
It was like I was seeing Mrs. Doyle and I was seeing my mother at the same time.
I never in all my life expected that I would ever see either of them again.
And when I walked up to her, I just wrapped my arms around her and I couldn't help, I just
broke down in tears.
I'll never forget that moment.
It will live with me for the rest of my life.
And I know based on what you've told me, it lived with her for the rest of her life as
well.
We had put a book together of all of the pictures of your reunion, the letter, classroom
pictures.
And she always had it out.
It was in her dining room and she would show friends and whoever came by.
And we had that book at her funeral service and her wake.
So that for me, I think helped me through my grief because we get wrapped up in the person
going and leaving us.
And then you realize it's not all about us, but it's about their legacy.
It's about what have they left behind?
Throughout the entire experience I had been focused on how it made me feel.
And I just have to say that I'm just so grateful also that in some small way I was able to
bring her a little bit of joy before it was too late.
And that was in a big way.
That was in a big way, John.
I almost feel like you're a brother.
I suspect our mothers have something to do with it.
Am I quite well?
Yes, I've had something to do with that, I think.
So what a gift they gave us.
They certainly did.
That's all for this episode.
It was produced by Jasmine Morris and me.
Our senior producer is Judd Estee Kendall.
Max Young Rice is our associate producer.
And our technical director is Jared Floyd.
Special thanks to Katie Simon, John White, and Julia Kirshenbaum.
To see a photo of John's letter, head over to our website storycore.org.
And while you're there, find out how to record your own interview.
I'm Michael Garofalo.
And I'm Jasmine Morris.
We'll be back next week with our final episode celebrating our 20th anniversary.
We promise.
Until then, thanks for listening.
Support for this podcast comes from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation
funded by the American people.
