When he was just a kid, Larry Israelson did something that hurt his seventh-grade teacher. After he grew up, Larry wanted to apologize but couldn't find the teacher, who has since retired.
Thirty nine years later, he got the chance to apologize when Tom Hallman of The Oregonian wrote an article about an education program that the teacher just so happen to volunteer for.
Here's the touching story of forgiveness, 39 years in the making.
Over the decades, the man occasionally turned to the Internet, typing the teacher's name into the search box. He never found anything. He never quit looking. A few months ago -- by now nearly 39 years after this happened -- he got a hit.
Stunned, he started reading a story that two years earlier had appeared in The Oregonian. He studied an accompanying photograph and recognized his teacher. He cleared his screen and wrote an e-mail that ended up in the newspaper's mailbox. A clerk forwarded it to me. I found it buried in my in-box where it was surrounded by notifications about crimes, road conditions and interoffice messages.
Only by chance was I curious enough about the subject line -- "Customer Feedback" -- to open the email from a man named Larry Israelson.
"You published an item involving retired teacher James Atteberry and the CASA program. Mr. Atteberry was a teacher of mine in the early '70s, and I wish to apologize to him for a regrettable incident that occurred when I was his student. Can you provide any contact information for him, or would you be willing to serve as an intermediary and deliver a message on my behalf? Thank you for your time, and I await your reply."
Read the rest over at The Oregonian: Link