First, here's the background story (in much greater detail than necessar,y I'm sure): In May, I will have been teaching my class for 5 years. I teach Fall, Spring and an early summer class. The first class I taught was in Summer 2003 and one of the very first students I had was an older woman named "M". At first M drifted in and out of classes, skipping a semester then back and drifting in and out of classes. Now for the past 3 years solid she has been in every fall and spring class. I have become very fond of her and my assistant and I have become very involved with her life.

Now this spring semester I was delighted to see on my spring roster, the name of a former university employee I used to sit on committees with. "C" is one of those people who would always say, "I am going to take your class this semester!" but never did. Well, she finally signed up. The first class came, I gave her a big hug etc. Great to see you, nice to meet your friend etc. The 2nd beginning class is when the 1st int/adv class starts (their classes are longer so they have less classes). The beginning class is taking a quick water break and in walks "M." I'm talking through some moves with students and see "C" has gone over to "M" and is hugging her. It made me smile that someone else loves "M" as much as me. Class starts back up from the break and "C" walks to the front. I smiled and said, "How do you know M?" C smiles and says, "She's my sister in law!" I begin to gush about what a wonderful woman M is and how I just love her so much and so on. C just smiles and says, "Yeah, she's great!" So we're at the end of class and C asks if she and her friend can sit at the back of the class to watch the next class. Students ask that all the time so I naturally said yes. My assistant comes over to me and whispers tersely under her breath, "They can't stay!" Students are transitioning and there is a bustle of activity and all I am doing is looking at her blankly like HUH? Students are standing in line to ask questions and she says again quietly, "They can't stay!" I must have looked like a fish with my mouth hanging open and blinking rapidly. "We always let students stay and I already told them they could."

My assistant is my best friend of 17 years, you would think the warning bells would have been so loud that it would have seemed like her mouth was moving and nothing was coming out. "We need to talk after class." Ok.

So int/adv class starts and we begin our opening drills and move into zill drills. I notice that C and her friend leaves followed a little while later by M and my assistant (who later come back).

During the water break for the int/adv class my assistant gets my attention and tells me the story. C *was* M's sister in law (M's ex-husband's sister). The ex-husband's family is all incredibly abusive to her even to this day. They go out of their way to make her life a living hell and call her nasty names to her face (not even to her back)...basically every horrible thing a group of people could do to torture a person...they have done and continue to do. I was mortified. After class was over and turned to find M a few feet from me. We locked eyes and I said, "I am SO sorry!" And she began to cry. "This is *my* place! This is where I come to get away from them!" When C went to give M her hug, she hissed at her, "Chris (me) is *my* friend."

It's not like C's being overtly nasty but she is silently torturing M. M is quite heavy set and has slightly deformed feet so some moves are a little more difficult for her to her credit she tries everything I throw at her. She's become even more aware now of her faults and it's obvious that coming to class is wearing on her nerves. But she keeps coming with a smile on her face. A few weeks ago C tried to sneakily take a picture of M while she was dancing but another student intervened.

Obviously, I can't toss her out of class and I can't prevent her from taking class. Members of my int/adv class have taken to forming themselves around M as a barrier. I don't know what else to do. I just keep praying that it's getting old for C and she won't sign up again but then again, torturing M seems to a family past time. I must confess, after C told me she had hip replacement surgery some years ago and it still bothered her, I deliberately did really intensive hip drills. I may go to hell now (or in my case, a lower ring of hell) but it made me giggle.