Dyslexia Dynamics Learning Support

Greetings to all the friends of The Storybook School. I have very sad tidings to convey: Due to a sudden and serious illness of my mother Marthanne Norgren, we have had to close our little school. I am now spending most of my time in Corvallis caring for both parents with the help of my brother, his family and a trusted family friend. My father was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in the early summer so my parents' living situation is doubly complicated now.

Marthanne was a lifelong children's literature collector. She turned her passion for children's literature into a job teaching in the Elementary Education department at OSU in the 1980's. She was both my inspiration and benefactor. Her generous donation of start-up funds made my attempt at this whole venture possible to begin with. I am grateful I had the opportunity to get as far as I did in carrying out this long-cherished dream of running my own school.

My mother has been diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer and has only weeks to live. After 10 days in the hospital, she is now back with my father in their home of the past 34 years in hospice care. This medical crisis brought about a complete derailment of our program. We had to close down the school with no time to properly say "Goodbye" to each other. This has been an unforeseen and unfortunate end to our adventure which we all embarked upon so enthusiastically.

The hardest part of all of this is the disruption of my relationship with my 4 students and their supportive families. I want to say a heartfelt "Thank You" to all of them for joining me in my attempt to create a special haven for young children and a unique learning environment. I can only hope that they will carry away some special memories of our time together, and that they will all make smooth transitions to new programs for the remainder of this school year.

Please send your caring thoughts and prayers to my mother and our extended family as we join together in supporting her and each other through this end-of-life process. We are grateful for some brief time together.
In appreciation of all interest shown to our school,
Be Well, Melissa