Alfred J, Glapion aka Glap

                                                    Alfred J, Glapion aka Glap



Glap was my friend. I meet him when I was volunteering at E.J. Morris Senior Citizen Center. My mother had recently died and my father was living with me. I had to work, so I had him go to a senior citizen center during the day and I would pick him up when I left school. He was in his eighties and it was better for him to be there than home alone.



Eventually he would get a ride to and from the center, but for the first month, I would bring him and pick him up. Glap would walk him to the car for me. When I got a chance to talk with Glap, he said he remembered me and my sister as little girls on Andry Street where our Aunt lived. I remember going to Aunt Cecil as a child. He said he lived on the next street over, but his friends, Edmond and Arthur, lived  next door our aunt. I remember Edmond and Arthur, so we had a bond.



When my father died four years later, I decided to volunteer at the center, by that time I had retired from my career as a high school English teacher and I was working as a tutor. I was the instructor of the sewing class /humanities class. We sewed, but we talked about history as well. Glap was in this class and he became nicknamed, "Teacher's Pet" because he was my right hand man, my assistant. He would set up the classroom when I was running late, he would remind the students of the class times and assignments and he would start class if I was late. I appreciated all his help and it made the classroom so much fun. He and Al "Carnival Time" Johnson were the two men in the class; sometime we might have two more men wander in, but Al and Glap were always there.



We lost touch for a while after Hurricane Katrina destroyed our city, but we managed to get together and write a  short story on he and his wife's life in the Ninth Ward. But Glap became sick about two years ago and I promised to go see him. I talked with him on the phone in April, 2013 before I visited my daughter in Paris.  But when the call came that he had died, I felt like I didn't get  a chance to say goodbye to a dear friend.