I received some heartbreaking news today via Facebook. One of my beloved former students had unexpectedly passed away leaving behind a husband, and a son in middle school.
It’s always difficult to wrap your brain around this kind of news, and having lost my own mother early in life I have some understanding of what her young son must be feeling.
As I think back on Sarah so much comes to mind. Although, as teachers we love all our students, some just hold a little more special place in our hearts. I was Sarah’s second grade teacher when I taught in Cedar Hill, and she is one student I’ve never forgotten.
Sarah was the kid who I would have picked to be trapped with on a deserted island. Selfishly, this was based on her mad survival skills learned through her time in Girl Scouts. If I was with Sarah I knew I would make it out alive and well.
My most fond memory of Sarah, though, happened one year when I was decorating our class Christmas tree with handmade ornaments I had made for each child. I had cut them out of felt, and had written each child’s name in glitter glue.
Unfortunately they had not turned out quite as nicely as I had envisioned, and I remember lamenting the fact to Sarah as she stood by watching me decorate the tree.
Her response is something I have remembered for almost forty years, and have shared with many people over the years. You know the old saying, “Out of the mouths of babes,” well hers was so full of wisdom it took me aback, and made me realize what was really important.
She said, “Don’t worry, they are good enough for kids.”
What she meant wasn’t that kids don’t deserve quality gifts, but rather that she loved and appreciated the fact that her teacher cared so much for her to spend hours cutting, and gluing individual ornaments for each child.
In a pre-Pinterest world she understood that things didn’t have to be perfect in order to be “perfect” or as she said “good enough.”
As I raised my own daughter years later I always treasured those words in my heart, and even today with my two grandsons I remember them.
Kids don’t require everything to be the biggest and the best. Just knowing you love them is what matters most. Spoiling them with simple little outreaches of love is sufficient.
When someone passes too soon from this world there are so many unanswered questions. So many things we don’t know or understand. What I do know for sure, though, is that Sarah made a difference in my life, and I’m sure she did the same for many others as well.
Over the last several years I’ve enjoyed keeping up with her, and watching her mothering her growing son. I know how lucky he was to have her, and he will carry with him all the lessons she taught him.
Now I pray for peace that passes all understanding for her family. I reach out to her mother Donna with my heartfelt condolences, and to her brother Ben, and her husband and son, and all who loved Sarah.
