A Teacher’s Lifesaving Call

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Julia Koch began what was only her second year as a first grade teacher in a virtual classroom.

One September afternoon a few weeks into the school year, she received a call from Cynthia Phillips, who was having technical difficulties with her granddaughter’s tools for online learning.

Koch immediately knew something was wrong with Phillips. The two women had spoken numerous times before, but Koch had never heard the grandmother sound quite like this. Her words were so jumbled that Koch could barely understand her, though she was able to make out that Phillips had fallen four times that day.

Koch called her principal, Charlie Lovelady, who assured her that he would call and check on Phillips himself.

Just like Koch, Lovelady could barely understand Phillips. He suspected she might be having a stroke—he recognized the signs from when his own father had suffered one. Lovelady was able to make out the word “kids” and immediately became concerned that Phillips’s two grandchildren, aged six and eight, were probably home alone with her—she   is   their primary guardian—and scared. Lovelady asked his office manager to send an ambulance to the grandmother’s home. Then Lovelady called two deans in the school district, to tell them what was going on, both of whom dropped everything and drove to the family’s home.

When they pulled up less than ten minutes later, the EMTs(急救人员)were treating Phillips while the two girls, looking visibly shaken, were outside with a neighbor.

The quick response from Koch and Lovelady saved Phillips’s life. She arrived at the hospital in time to get treatment and before chronic damage occurred.

“If it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t be here,” said Phillips from her hospital bed about a month after her stroke.

Thanks to an extended stay in the hospital, she has regained most of the movement throughout her body except for one hand and a portion of her mouth, which affects her speech.

Last Monday, to prepare a picnic, I decided to go into a superstore which was on my way home.

I parked my car in the big parking lot and went into the superstore. It was a huge one, spread onto 2 stories and 200, 000+sq-ft. After 45 minutes of shopping(which looked like a real escape game)to just get some tomatoes, cheese and 3 toothpicks, I arrived at the cashier line, thoughtful and a bit upset by the time I spent to get 5 articles. I wondered why I did not go to a small local store.

After 15 minutes of waiting in the line, the woman in front of me called me: "Heyyou only have 5 articles? Pass before me; I have many more articles than you!"

It wasn’t the first time it had happened to me. But her initiative(提议)was disarming, as well as was her smile. She did not wear any mask, so I could see it. Not knowing what else to do, I accepted her offering. We chatted a bit waiting for the customers ahead of us to finish-she was very pleasant. Then I thanked her, giving                           her back my brightest smile although I was wearing a mask.

Getting back in my car, I rethought about that good moment, and realized that she made my day. In the meantime, I wondered how to give it back to her. No doubt it was quite impossible, so I considered how to pay-it-forward to someone else.

While driving, I realized that she saved me 10 minutes. And while I was driving at 70mph, I reduced my speed to 55 mph. The amount of fuel used dropped down by 35%.

As a result, I re-lost part of the 10 minutes that the woman offered me, but it was a way to repay her and do a small thing for the environment.

Growing up, Chris Hadfield spent every summer at his family’s cottage (小屋) on Stag Island in southern Ontario. Like just about everyone else on the island, the Hadfields didn’t have a television set, so late in the evening of 20 July 1969, Chris and his family went to a neighbour’s cottage to watch the Apollo 11 landing on TV. When he saw Neil Armstrog step onto the surface of the Moon , Chris’s life changed forever. He knew he wanted to be an astronaut (宇航员) too.

At the time , it was impossible. For one thing, he wasn’t a grown-up yet. For another , all of NASA’s astronauts were American. Canadians weren’t even allowed to apply for the job.

But Chris decided to start getting ready, just in case things ever changed. He worked hard at school, learning everything he could about science , rockets and Space. As a teenager, he learned how to fly gliders (滑翔机), and then, after graduating from military college, he became a fighter pilot. Later , he became a test pilot who helped make military aircraft safer. Twenty-three years after that summer night on Stag Island, Chris’s dream came true: the newly formed Canadian Space Agency chose him to be an astronaut.

Since then , he has orbited (围绕……运动) the Earth thousands of times on three separate missions. Most recently, Chris was in Space for nearly five months, from December 2012 to May 2013, when he served as the first Canadian Commander of the International Space Station ( ISS ).

Today, Chris travels the world teaching people about Space, sharing the beautiful photographs he took and playing the songs he recorded on the space station. On summer nights, he likes to sit on his dock on Stag Island, watching for the ISS to pass by overhead. Even in the darkest dark, on a moonless night, the spaceship’s light is clearly visible (看得见的).