The email from Charles Farr arrived unexpectedly and seemingly with some urgency. The subject line was simply "Randi."Charles Farr is the principal at the Califronia School for the Deaf's Career Technical Education department and a friend of mine. He is a graduate of Gallaudet University and a mutual friend of Gary Malkowski, Canada's Deaf Politician, who befriended my family and me before we moved to Fremont 13 years ago. I got to know Charles over the years and enjoyed his sense of humor. Playing with him the Deaf adults soccer team for a few years was a real treat.
So an email from Charles wasn't totally out of the blue, but I immediately assumed something bad had happened. He had written, "Could you please call me at your earliest convenience?" I jumped to the conclusion that Miranda had been hurt in an accident or had pulled some kind of senior prank.
Since I wa at work, I dialed the VRS relay number and when they tried to reach Charles' videophone, it was busy. I sent Miranda a text message asking her, "What's up?" Then I called her mother. She didn't know but was also concerned as she gotten the same email from Charles and had tried to get through to him, but couldn't reach him.
The minutes ticked up as I tried to return to my work activities, but I couldn't concentrate. Then my phone rang and it was the VRS relay with a call from Charles. Even when the interpreter was causally relaying Charles question of "How are you?" I was wondering what the hell had happened to my daughter.
Charles broke the news that though there would be no valedictorian for her class, she was selected by the high school staff at CSDF to be one of the class speakers. He said when they told Miranda, she was very excited. Charles went on to explain that there would be one other student speaker and that Miranda has been asked to prepare a 5-7 minute speech. I said, "Wow, that's great news." (I was relieved more than elated.)
After I got off the phone with Charles, I check to see if had received an email from Randi. I had. All she said in response to my "What's up?" was a terse "What do you mean?" I responded with a "I just heard from Charles Farr that you are going to be a speaker at your graduation. Congratulations! Tell more." She did not. It's been several days and I'm still waiting to hear more...but I'm sure she'll give a good speech.
The moral of this experience is...everybody say it with me: Don't jump to conclusions!
(The above photo of Miranda was taken by Barbie Dike Photograpy.)
