“Our Very Own Higglytown Hero”

The chain in the tank to my toilet flusher broke last night. Sean was at work and worked until late and he was still sleeping this morning. My Mom pulled the lid to the tank of my toilet off so she would be able to flush it. I started to laugh and told her about a memory that just popped into my head.

The spring semester before my senior year as an undergrad, I figured out that if I took 23 credits in the following summer semester and then took 12 credits in the fall, student taught in the winter, and took three classes the next summer, I would be able to get a full-time paying, “Big Girl job” for the 2005-2006 school year so Sean and I could move out of my Parents’ house I discussed my plan regarding the school credits with my Mom. I explained how it would fit in with my plan to be out of my Parents’ house before Sean started kindergarten.

I remember thinking I was going to die halfway through that summer semester before my senior year. It worked out that I took 12 credits and then 11 credits in two 7 week “mini-sessions” in the summer semester. My Mom and I discussed that we would NOT tell my Dad my plan and that he would think that I was just taking a normal 12 credits in the summer.

My Dad died not knowing any of this. So, Sean and I moved into our apartment on August 1, 2005. I think it was a week later that I had three classes in another, “Mini-session during the summer semester just after I had already walked for my undergraduate graduation. (I was in a wheelchair because I had broken my ankle while student teaching). The infamous graduation picture that we will re-create at Sean’s graduation:

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The maintenance manager came to our apartment to fix the broken chain on the toilet in our first apartment that caused it to run continuously when Sean came home from my Parents’ house. So here Sean was, three years old, and there was a strange man with his hands in our toilet. He was extremely confused! I told Sean that he was our very own, “Higglytown hero”:

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There was a show that Sean watched it at my Parents’ house on Disney Junior. They were Russian dolls

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and the show was about all of the trades people who help them solve whatever was wrong. They were mail carriers, plumbers, electricians, etc.

I remember Sean relaxing when I told him about the stranger being, “Our very own Higglytown hero and I remember that Ed (The maintenance manager) was weirded out because he thought I said, “Uglytown” so I had to explain the show to him. I haven’t thought about, “Our very own Higglytown hero” in years! This all happened about 14 years ago… All of this because the chain in my toilet tank broke.