Surprise compliment

Last Monday I picked big guy up from school and ms T, who is the afternoon helper teacher, let me know that she was officially retiring June 5th. She was previously at 3rd grade teacher in our district for over 20 years. I congratulated her and let her know that big guy was also done at his school that day too. We chatted about Kindergarten and she then gave him a surprise compliment that almost made me cry!  She let me know how she though big guy had so much knowledge and how he was so inquisitive and insightful. She said that she could tell that he was really smart. Then someone came over and said something to her. I let this soak in for a bit and told her thank you for saying that because he's had a rough school experience. To which she said, that she is so impressed with how much he's grown and developed since September! And that he was going to be ok. I probably would have hugged her if I wasn't carrying little man, but it really made my day, my week, my year.