Tell Someone You Love,
That You Love Them (2/12/24)

Nine years ago my mother was very sick.  My siblings and I had come together, making her comfortable, taking care of her, and spending every moment we could with her.  I was stopping at my school each day on the way to my mother's house - dropping off assignments, checking on how my sub was doing, and answering any questions that the students had left for me (their big Macbeth Day performances were coming up in a few days).  On Tuesday, my mom took a turn for the worse and we knew that  things were coming to a close.  As I dropped things off, I wrote on one of the dry erase boards - "Tell someone you love, that you love them."  My mother passed the next day.

I made the choice to come in that Friday - it was Macbeth Day.  I knew it was what was best for me - I knew it was what my mother would have wanted - and I also knew how hard the students had worked on this - and that the theater was reserved for that day - and if we cancelled or postponed - they would lose that singular experience of performing (and watching the performances of their classmates) their Macbeth scenes on stage.

That morning, very early, I stopped off at my classroom (good ol Room 207) to pick up a few things on my way to the theater.  When I walked in the room - I saw what my wonderful, wonderful students had written on those dry erase boards - and it moved me like nothing else had or would in my teaching career.  I still, like Wordsworth and his daffodils, call upon that memory when I am sad, blue, or overwhelmed - and I'm sure I will until the end of my days.  Thank you so much my students.  It is why I teach - it is the reason I'm creating this site.