Smith: Boy at Kaiser wows veteran teacher

The scene was a waiting room at Kaiser’s Santa Rosa medical offices. Bob Edmondson’s eyes met those of a lad who’d arrived with his mother.

“The boy was about 8 and was in a motorized wheelchair,” shares Edmondson, a 5th-grade teacher at Sonoma Charter School.

“While his mom checked in at the desk, he and I struck up a conversation. We talked for only about a minute. But in that time, I found him to be the sweetest kid I have ever met ... as a teacher of 32 years, that is saying a lot!”

During their momentary encounter that Saturday in late April, the kid told the teacher what his chair would do, and demonstrated a few moves.

Edmondson said, “He told me he had been in the chair since he was 3 years old. I complimented him on his posture and he lit up like a Christmas tree.”

Then, Edmondson’s name was called. As he stood to go to an exam room, the boy said “Bye” to him three times.

He “looked so deeply into my eyes,” Edmondson said, “I was in tears while I stood on the scale to get my weight checked. I told the doctor’s assistant that I had never been so moved by a chance meeting with another soul in my life.”

Today he hopes the boy and his family might read or hear about this, and the conversation might continue.

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NOT-THAT-LUCKY DUCK: The badly injured mallard that Dawn Clayton and Kelly Scholles rescued last week from Howarth Park’s Lake Ralphine is doing well following surgery to complete the amputation of one leg.

Dr. Lee Thorne of Alderbrook Pet Hospital didn’t charge for the surgery. The duck’s thriving in the care of Clayton and Scholles, who thought to name him Limpy but settled on Peggy Lou.

Clayton, who’d snagged the duck with a net after noticing its right leg was nearly severed by a tight wrapping of fishing line, hopes to return him to the small lake at the east Santa Rosa park and to its mate.

When Dr. Thorne sees the duck for ?removal of the bandage, he, Clayton and Scholles will discuss whether it would likely be able to survive at the park sans one leg. If yes, he’ll be released there.

Plan B is for Peggy Lou to be adopted by a woman who cares for one disabled duck at her home with a pond and would take in a second.

Whatever becomes of the bird, rescuers Clayton and Scholles vow to continue leading cleanup missions at Howarth and urging anglers and other visitors to pick up the loose fishing tackle and other trash that imperils wildlife and humans alike.

Said Clayton, “This is so much bigger than just the duck.”

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MANNERS MATTER: Nineteen youngsters tested their dining-out behavior as they took their seats and lapped their napkins days back at ?Bodega Bay’s landmark Tides Wharf.

It was a final of sorts. For three weeks, Sonia Barajas, coordinator of the grant-funded after-school program at little Bodega Bay School, had worked with the kindergarteners through fifth-graders on table etiquette and such.

The students, some of whose parents work in the service industry, savored the meal and minded their manners. Of the 19, how many would you suppose had eaten out before at a place as nice as the Tides?

Barajas said there was one.

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HE’S A SINGER packaged as a DMV drivers’ test examiner.

Rich Delgado sang all through school, honing his art in the great Dan Earl’s a cappella choir at Santa Rosa High.

At 47, Delgado favors R&B- and soul, and hires out for weddings, funerals, quinceañeras. And he’s as excited a kid:

He has been accepted to audition for TV’s “The Voice” on July 26 in L.A. He’s thinking he’ll go with “When I Fall in Love.”

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TOTAL RECALL: My humble and honorable Honda has been recalled for that airbag problem. When it’s at the dealership I’ll ask that the mechanics give a listen to the turn-signal indicator and determine if it needs to be reset.

As long as I’ve had the car, I swear the signal tone says er-Blink, er-Blink, er-Blink.

Chris Smith is at 521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @CJSPD.