A Kid Named Doc

Kathryn Crawford Saxer A Little Kindness

I read with a first grader at my kids’ school last week. He told me he has the same name as his grandpa. And that both his father and his grandfather are in heaven.
We read a book about a kid whose father works in an automobile factory. As we read, the boy confidently identified the different makes of cars. “That’s a Ford,” he said, “That’s a Honda.”
On the last page of the book, the protagonist talks about how proud he is of his father and how he wants to work in an automobile factory when he grows up.
“What do you want to be when you grow up?” I ask the boy sitting next to me.
“I’m going to be a doctor,” he said.  I believe him totally.
“From now on, I’m calling you Doc,” I said. “Okay?”
As he ran back to his classroom, someone called out his name. “My name’s Doc,” I heard him say as he disappeared around the corner.