She walked into my classroom ten minutes early on the first day of the Fall 1990 semester at South Pasadena Adult Education. I sat at my desk with my head down, going over notes and a sheet of mandatory announcements. It was not hard to hear the entrance, which came with a slight swish to it. I raised my head to greet my first adult education student. She stood just in from the door: a person-a woman-a person, unlike any person I had ever seen or, indeed, have ever seen since, for she was radiant. Radiant-a not unusual adjective and often a metaphor-but at that moment, as she stood there, and as I possibly held my breath, the word was an utterly accurate adjective that was just barely a metaphor. Thus begins a very odd love story