Martha lived in one school district but taught in another. So, on the days her son missed school and his school was in session, Martha would take the boy to work with her.
Seven classes in a row with my mother. He thought it was cool. He gave physical education. Yes, seven straight hours of physical education.
Dodgeball or basketball or whatever the game of the day is. Once, he brought his hockey gear and played goalie all day while kids of all ages learned to swing a hockey stick. “Dream comes true,” he would say decades later.
But Martha’s son loved summer even more. By the time he got to high school, he estimated that he played more sports with Martha than with any of his friends.
Horse in the driveway. Wiffle ball in the backyard. float. Shoot golf balls into buckets. Every summer day has its own P.E. Class.
“She was just great in so many ways,” Martha’s son said. “Just a great home to grow up in. Just the time she took to spend with me, too.
“Looking back, she spent the better part of a year teaching physical education to kids. It would have been easy to find time off in the summer, but it seemed like she would make time with me again in the summer. We had a P.E. house.” But class.” Soon, Martha turned from companion to director of transportation, taking her son everywhere to practice, play, camp, and run long distances.
Martha’s husband was no small part of the boy’s life. A noted athlete himself, he coached several of his son’s teams.
But there was something about Martha that reignited the boy’s athletic passion. And he definitely played the role of a teacher. (Trammell: Happy Mother’s Day To Martha, The PE Teacher Of The Year. Teacher)
Martha’s husband said, “She was probably the toughest mother between me and him.” “He had rules he had to follow; When you’re in a class of 25 kids all day, when you’re in classes seven or eight, there has to be an order to get anything done. He had that. He will have his own rules and you will have to follow them.
On the rare occasions when Martha’s son warranted discipline, he was sent to his bedroom, and Martha’s husband was the one who kept watch.
