Georgia Teacher Reunites with 'Superhero' Educator Who Changed His Life: Watch the Emotional Moment
"I broke out in tears," Ricky Latimore Jr. says of the reunion
A new educator in Georgia is sharing the emotional moment when he was reunited with the “superhero” who changed his life — his fifth-grade teacher.
Ricky Latimore Jr. was attending a teacher training in July when Andrea Dowdy walked into the room.
“I broke out in tears and my words started to break and I said you were my fifth-grade teacher, you changed my life, I’m Ricky Latimore,” the 34-year-old elementary school teacher recalled to CBS affiliate WANF-TV.
Dowdy, who was there as a presenter that day, remembered Latimore as if 24 years had vanished.
“When he told me his first name, I knew, I instantly knew who he was,” Dowdy told WANF.
For Latimore, the reunion brought back memories of the hardships he faced as a youngster.
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“What she did for me was change my life,” he said. “I was ashamed of how I looked, I was ashamed at how I dressed."
He added, “I was bullied, I was picked on, but there was one place where I was protected and that was in Mrs. Dowdy’s classroom.”
For Dowdy, Latimore and his fellow classmates had been recently on her mind when she came across their old class picture recently, Latimore told ABC affiliate WSB-TV.
At the workshop, Dowdy held her former student’s face in her hands, Latimore recalled, and repeated his name over and over again.
“Standing before her as a 34-year-old man, I felt fortified by the profound influence this angel of a teacher had on me all those years ago,” Latimore said.
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