One day I began to wonder what was in the boxes that I had stashed away out of sight. Some of the boxes had rested where they lay ever since I moved to Lafayette seven years ago. There couldn’t be anything I needed in them. I’d had lots of help packing up the stuff to bring with me. My children packed the things they thought to be of value, either real or sentimental. I dragged out a few items and with help inspected one. Guess what!

Ninety per cent of it was worth the price of scrap paper: 1990’s tax returns and obsolete reports. One item however caught my eye.

A crocheted afghan came out of the closet. It was a colorful, attractive piece of work, done in a zig-zag pattern of alternating brown, yellow and green. Though I knew it was there, the odd thing is that I had not used it on the recent chilly nights. Nevertheless it served to remind me of a brief encounter with a young woman.

Having completed second grade our son could read his “Dick and Jane” book perfectly well – so long as he had the pictures in front of him. Hide the pictures and he couldn’t read any of it. After six weeks of special instruction in summer school he read at the sixth grade level. A few years later, no doubt influenced by this and similar incidents, four women got their heads together to try to improve reading skills among school kids. Mary, Mary, Jane and Sally decided to attack the problem head on. The self-appointed four discovered a book about phonics written by Sister Monica Frazier of Xavier University in Cincinnati. They contacted Monica who agreed to help with their project.

I arrived home from work one afternoon and was surprised to find that we had a guest. She was none other than Sister Monica. She was a petite woman without outstanding features, pleasant of voice and cordial. She settled in as part of our family for the better part of a week.

Monica went with the Four to visit teachers, school board members and school administrators for the next several days presenting the idea that phonics was a better way for children to learn reading than the “gaze and guess” method that was evidently popular at the time.

During her stay with us Monica taught me a bit about phonics. I knew of course that letters of the alphabet represented sounds that a reader must know. Syllables, too, have certain sounds, but not always the same. There are so many exceptions to the rule that English is not really a phonetic language. “But,” said Monica, “close enough is good enough. The vast majority of words can be recognized using phonics and the exceptions can be learned later.”

I believe the ladies had a productive time and that Monica went home satisfied with her mission. A few weeks later the mailman delivered a package to our door. It turned out to be a thank you gift for Mary the hostess, from Monica. Opening the package Mary found a colorful crocheted afghan and two matching cushions.