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“He said, 'You make sure you call that teacher.'”

Al Siedlecki — or “Sie,” as his students call him — has been teaching science at Medford Memorial Middle School in New Jersey for more than three decades.

But a few years back, as Sie was helping a group of students study for a test, something happened that in all his years of teaching had never happened before:

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As it turns out, the doctor on the phone was Lee Buono, who was one of Sie’s students back in the 1980s. Today, he’s a neurosurgeon. At StoryCorps, the two sat down to tell the rest of their story.

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Recorded in Medford, NJ.

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Al and Lee were at the Launch of StoryCorp's National Teachers Initiative in Washington DC. To watch video of their speech click here.

Credits

Produced by Brian Reed.

Facilitated by Daniel Littlewood.

Transcript

Click here to read the transcript for this story.

Interview transcript

Lee Buono (LB) : This patient comes in, and he's got a benign tumor that’s pushing on his speech area. He can get some words out but it's almost unintelligible. It's almost like someone's sewing your mouth closed. So I'm talking to his wife, and we tried to lighten up the situation, and they started asking me about myself. And they asked me who inspired me, so of course I mentioned you. We have the surgery, he gets his speech back and he's just excited and happy and crying and wanted to just hug me. And he said, "You make sure you call that teacher. You make sure you thank him." So, I called you.

Al Siedlecki (AS): I picked the phone up and you go, "Hey, it's Lee Buono." I say, "Lee, what's goin' on man? I haven't heard from you since you were in high school." And you said: "I want to thank you." I was flabbergasted. I said, "Of all the people in your entire career, you want to thank me?" It was the same feeling I had when ... when my kids were born. And I started to cry. It made me feel really important that I had that influence on you. Lately, I almost am afraid to say that I'm a teacher to some people. But I'm not ... because you called me. I'm a teacher, and I'm going to help as many people as I can to find their passion too.