This morning, the school secretary entered my classroom and asked me to
attend a very short meeting at 1 PM. When I entered the teachers’ lounge
and saw all the faces, I knew it had to be bad. Turned out one of our
colleagues had died… I wasn’t that close to her anymore lately, but I
used to be. I knew her house, her family, all the little problems,
accompanied her with two of her children on a trip to France…
She
had been absent for a while, depression. Last week I heard she was in
hospital, intensive care: a brain tumor. She herself didn’t know this:
she had slipped into a coma before the diagnosis. And now…
I will miss her, although I didn’t see much of her lately. I can’t stop thinking about how it used to be, about her children (the youngest being 15, ADD, a very troubled kid) and about all she stood for. She was one of those rare persons who are too good for this world: although she didn’t have much money, she cared for some abandoned children as well.
Sigh.