""And the rest of the story was, a few months prior to this happening, my mom and my stepdad decided my big brother my anchor in life needed to go live with my dad. So, overnight they took him and they dropped him off with my dad. So I woke up one morning and my brother was gone.""
""And in a moment that I'll remember forever, she just said, 'Oh, honey,'" Eby recalled. "She pulled me close to her and she hugged me. That's it. She hugged me and she let me cry. And somehow her hug centered me. It rooted me and it made me feel that I would be OK.""
""The girls that I hung out with for lunch and played with had held a meeting and told me that I was no longer cool enough to hang out with them," Eby recalled. "They would be ignoring me, and I was no longer part of the group.""
Tanya Eby experienced a cascade of losses in sixth grade when her brother was suddenly sent to live with their father and her stepdad later left. Soon after, her lunchtime friends held a meeting and told her she was no longer welcome, leaving her isolated. She broke down in class and confided in her teacher, Mrs. Welch, who took her to the teachers' lounge, held her, and let her cry. The teacher's embrace centered Eby and made her feel she would be OK. Eby later reconnected with her brother but never saw Welch again.
Read at www.npr.org
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