Teaching=Immortality

Gigi Gould in the Alumnae Office got the good news last week that Meg Kinnard Hinson, Class of 1998, is the proud mother of a baby girl. Her name? Adair Nanette Hinson, after Nanette Quinn, longtime Upper School French teacher, who died in 2009. (Thanks to Meg for sharing a photo of herself and her newborn daughter, left.)

Here's how Meg explains her devotion to someone who taught her way more than French:

Like hundreds of other St. Mary's girls, I left for college equipped with an amazingly rich background in French, thanks in no small part to Nanette Quinn's diligent instruction. I sailed through my college language classes, earning fluency after my freshman year. But I also left SMS knowing that I had made a friend for life in Nanette. She was so much more to me, and so many others, than just an instructor whose knowledge we absorbed and appreciated. To me, Nanette was a sounding board for life's challenges, French-related or otherwise. 

Just as she patiently helped me navigate "Le Petit Prince," Nanette walked me through issues with other courses, boy troubles, even picking Georgetown University for my college years.  

Once I was away at college, Nanette made sure she emailed and called regularly, purportedly to make sure my French was up to snuff, but we talked about everything, my DC life, her boys, SMS gossip. No trip home happened without stopping by the Quinn house on Oakley to have a sit, maybe a glass of wine, and catch each other up on everything. She became less and less my instructor, and more my friend, my equal, the sister figure I'd never been blessed to have.  

When my boyfriend proposed to me during a flight to Memphis for Christmas, he'd made sure to call Nanette, ensuring she'd be there at the airport alongside my parents to welcome us with flowers and balloons. Ten months later, I asked her to read a Bible verse at our wedding in South Carolina. The choice was obvious to me; without her participation, the service wouldn't have been complete. 

When my husband and I learned we were expecting a daughter, we knew that it just felt right that Nanette would play a role in that development as well.  

Even though she had no daughters of her own, Nanette was a mother to so many of us. And, having now become a mother myself, to honor her memory in my little girl's name is a daily joyous remembrance of the times that we had together and how I hope my daughter, Adair Nanette, grows up to embody so many of the admirable characteristics of her namesake.

As we head into another school year, it's a good time to remember -- and appreciate -- all the amazing teachers who make (and have always made) St. Mary's unique and wonderful. Want to find out more about one of your current favorites? Take a look at the new Meet Our Teachers section of the Web site.
Alums: Leave a comment telling us whom you loved, and why.