Just wanted to pick brains of teachers to see how you'd respond if you got this. I posted a while ago about how two teachers saw me through to being OK despite my mother emotionally and physically abusing us. I've written a book and dedicated it to one of them, with a bit in the acknowledgements about her teaching. But in the card I was going to explain why she mattered so much to me. But I don't want her to feel pressured or as if I'm likely to stalk her or anything. I left school 32 years ago, and have seen her only two or three times since then, although we occasionally send messages on FB. Is this OK or too much:
The part that I can’t put in the acknowledgements is that what I owe you is not just the way you taught us – though I’m so grateful for that, and mean every word of what I said about it. I loved your classes. But things were sometimes quite difficult at home as my mother suffers from severe and chronic mental illness, which saw her hospitalised every so often and also meant that she was furious with us for never being good enough to make up for everything that was wrong. At those times when she was hitting us or shouting about how awful we were, it helped so much that in school you were always so consistently kind and supportive. I’ve never known how to thank you for being the sort of person I needed back then. I do know that if you hadn’t been, I’d have found things far, far more difficult and that you are a big part of things turning out OK.