Month one of 2009 over! Wow, times really can fly by. We had our usual morning of basketball with Grandma + Grandpa coming to watch too. My picture of the day can be seen here.
Got news last evening that a former colleague of mine passed away suddenly. He was 48 and leaves 3 kids (9th grader{who was in my class in 2nd grade}, 6th grader, Kindergardener) + his wife. Pretty shocking.
The school I taught at for the first 8 years of my career, Wright Elementary, where he and I were colleagues, was closed and the district rearranged the schools and students after the 03-04 school year. That was heart breaking for all of us.
Wright Elementary was a very unique place, no a pretty amazing place - mostly because of the people who worked there and our dedication to each other + to teaching children. It was a small school, only 2 classes per grade level. We were all more than just coworkers - pretty much counted on each other as friends. Many of us had our own children during that time and have continued to get together at least once a year since then - some of the lucky ones still work together, others of us are sprinkled around in other schools and districts.
After hearing the news of his passing one of the girls offered to have anyone over who could make it tonight. It was such a good thing. We talked, caught up, shared about our own kids, were amazed about how old and grown up they've become, told school stories, talked about students we'd run into or read about - good + bad, laughed hard - really hard, cried a bit. We stayed quite a while, like nobody really wanted to go. Eventually we hugged and knew we see each other again soon as arrangements were being made. I included a picture from one of our Christmas parties in my collage today.
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