I am near to going home after a week with family. It has been fun but I am ready to go home. Sleep in my own bed, sit in my own chair, and kick my own cat.
Let us be clear… I love seeing my family but I hate coming back to where I grew up. Too many memories.
In a handful of hours I will be back in my own home, and thrilled to be there.
But I enjoy seeing my dad. He and I got on the topic of adults that we ran across in our young lives that took an interest in us but we never understood why until years later, or may not have ever done so.
He mentioned one teacher who wrote in his book “‘Can’t’ never did anything.”
It is an unusual thing to say in a kid’s autograph book and surely had a reason.
I told him that I had a teacher give me “The Count of Monte Cristo”. He remembered her well.
Out of all the kids she had in her classes she wasn’t known for handing out books not on the reading list and saying things such as “I think you will really identify with the main character.”
And I still wonder what made her do that. I can make all sorts of guesses but what did she know or think she knew about me and my life?
If you have had that happen, I would love to hear about it, and why you think it happened.
Lemur King's Folly 
I would interpret the ” ‘Can’t’ never did anything” comment as a vote of hope or confidence in him – that he will indeed “do something” with his life. Obviously she was right.
Either that, or it is an gentle reminder to never say, “I can’t …”.
When I was a young man, a divorcee girlfriend gave me her (now meaningless) wedding band as a gift. Never did tell me why, but insisted that I take it.
Many years later I mentioned it to someone who promptly recited an old Eastern European(?) Saying – I can’t remember the exact words – that said basically, “One who possesses (or ‘is gifted’) the band from a broken marriage will never suffer the same fate”. I still have it.
I like your old girlfriend, ‘Goo. I can think of few gifts as personal or genuine, if she meant it as I think she did.