Today a woman came up my street shouting my name, ‘Jo, Jo, Jo!’ I was just walking back into my house from outside. At first I thought it was one of our learners. I looked back to where she was, halfway along the street, and when I realised I didn’t know her I figured that I had heard incorrectly, that she was probably calling ‘Hello, Hello’ to someone I couldn’t see.
From inside I could hear her coming closer, still calling. When I went outside again, cup of tea in hand, she called to me, ‘Are you Jo?’ She was looking for the literacy class because her adult daughter cannot read. Someone had told her the street where I lived so she was looking for me the only way she could think of – by walking along it calling out my name. We talked for a few minutes and her daughter is coming to class tomorrow.
After she left I thought about the love and determination it takes for a mother to seek out help for her child in the way she had.
It reminded me how much our work matters, and I felt humbled.