Dear Jessica Brennan,
The day I first looked at your face was the number-one most magic filled moment of my life, but I’m not going to talk about that today. You know that story all too well as it is.
Second only to that moment was the incredible moment I realized I could read.
There I was, all five years of me, sitting at Northbrae Public School in Miss Nichols’s class dutifully learning my phonics and sounding out my letters.
B – buh
D – duh
F – fuh
R – Ruh
I knew them all.
Miss Nichols put a book down in front of me and told me to buh, duh and ruh my way through the line of letters in front of me. It must have been painful for her really. A whole classroom full of squirming fawns, tiny and distracted, making grunting sounds all together.
“Buh, eh, duh”
“Duh, ah, duh”
Nope. None of this made any sense. I wished I could get to the real words.
“Feh, uh, Nuh”
“Duh, oh, Guh”
“Ruh, eh, Duh..”
What? Ruh eh Duh sounded like something!
“Ruh, ehhh, D”
I couldn’t believe it.
“Rehd”
“Red”
I looked at the page. I could read. It was true. Right there as clear as if I had written it myself, was the word red. More magic than a fairy godmother. I saw it. Red. My heart leapt. I can still feel the powerful emotion of it all today.
My face must have lit up the second it sank in. I was reading.
The day I saw red released a tsunami of passion in me for words, beautiful words. The day I saw red, I knew how to read and I read and read and read.
Love Mum
xo
