Professor gave me an A and it saved my life. 2.5 years later, I received this email from him.

A few months ago, I reached out to my old professor, thanking him for the compassion he showed me when I didn’t deserve anything from him. I was always a straight-A student, excelling in all my classes, but I was in an abusive relationship that had gotten to a point where I was too scared to leave my dorm room for days at a time. My grades slipped, and I no longer was able to attend my classes because my ex was stalking me. I was in the process of obtaining a restraining order against him, but I had been isolated from my friends and went through the process alone, leaving my mental health hanging on my a thread.

This was my favorite class, so I tried my best to get there, but when I showed up one day with red eyes and an apology ready for being missing for two weeks, my professor pulled me outside and gave me the first hug I’d had in weeks. I opened up to him about what I had been going through, and he listened when I felt like I had no one else. He sent me home and told me I was more important than my grades, to call him if I needed help, and that I could make up my work online.

I ended up dropping out of college because what I had endured there made it no longer a safe space for me. Feeling like a failure, I fully expected to fail this class, but he gave me an A. I didn’t even take the final. This professor who I barely knew was my lifeline that year.

I think angels do walk among us.