From this gentle man I learned about silent letters, abbreviations, words that are pronounced the same but spelled differently and tricky singulars and plurals like "phenomenon" and "phenomena." This soft-spoken, natural teacher, with thick bifocals, bushy eyebrows, and silver-white hair, sat with me night after night in the twilight of his years and gave me a little piece of himself. I stayed there at that job for about five or six weeks and I learned a pattern from him, then I was off to other things. I have never been able to thank him properly because I never knew then what an enormous contribution he was making to my life. I don’t know if he’s alive or dead, probably dead by now, but he was wonderful, and a little bit of him is in everything I do.