Dorothy Gatchell doesn’t remember how she came to be known as Mother Goose. The retired Auburn school teacher is pretty sure it all started with story time in her K-2 classes over 20 years ago.

“There have been a lot of Mother Gooses. I am one,” said Gatchell, 72, after a recent performance at Park Street School. “What you have to be to be a Mother Goose is you have to love to tell stories and rhymes, and you have to love kids. That’s what makes you a Mother Goose.”

Though she is most well-known as Mother Goose – the Auburn woman still works as a substitute teacher, and the kids are always excited to be taught by Mother Goose – she thinks of herself as more of a local storyteller.

When she decided she wanted to do a piece on Georgia O’Keefe, she traveled to New Mexico to see where the artist lived. When she was Mae West, she researched her life and made it come alive through performance.

But it’s her role as Mother Goose that gets her the most work. She doesn’t have a set performance. She takes cues from the students and teaches them to read.

And she loves it.

“The joy! There is such a joy of being around little kids,” Gatchell said. “They’re so honest and true.”

Her friends attribute her success to her child-like wonderment and imagination. She has never lost the ability to believe in what could be.

“I still believe in angels, even as an adult.”