If you don't have anything nice to say...make something up?

Today I got a friend request from a girl I went to school with back in the day. I was in one class with her and really liked her, but I was shy so I never tried to be her friend outside of class. I was kind of excited that she'd sent me a request after all these years, but then I saw she had another reason for friending me--her mother was my grade school teacher and she was trying to get former students to give quotes on how great a teacher she was so she could incorporate it into a retirement card she was making her. It sounds like a great idea, right? So what's the problem?

I don't have fond memories of being her mother's student.

The memories I have of that school year include being reprimanded because I didn't know the rules of kickball (no one had ever taught me--including her!), being told my little sister had a big mouth, and having a gold star sticker peeled off my little score card because she'd made an error in calculating my score in a game (it wasn't like I had a wrong answer or anything--the game was based on chance). I was kind of afraid to be in her class. It was so bad that when word got around that she would be teaching the grade above us the following year, my mom was going to request that I didn't get her for my teacher.

God, I feel so terrible for feeling this way since her daughter seems like such a sweet person and years later, her mother would talk to me and was very nice. In her defense, she may have been going through a divorce at the time. I can imagine it must've been hard to go through that and teach a bunch of little kids. I know that I was a favorite student of hers and that it would mean a lot to her to see a quote from me on her card. I just don't know what to say.