This past week brought with it sad news. From a few of my former students I learned that two other former students had died, both within days of each other.
Gwen was one of my students from about 25 years ago, so far back that I can barely remember the time. More recently, she worked in my old school as a Teacher Assistant, mostly with the Kindergarten kids but also as a Special Education assistant, tutoring older students. As a colleague, she brought a sense of humour and a special rapport with students that I valued, especialy during my last 4 years in the school, when I had time to wander into the Kindergarten classroom to see what was going on. Gwen had just quit her job in Landis and was starting back at University to get her teaching certificate. Diagnosed with heart disease some time ago, something I didn't know about, she died in her sleep about 2 weeks ago. Gwen was only in her late 30s.
I hadn't heard or seen much of Blake for about 8 years, pretty much since the time he left school under rather difficult circumstances. School was hard for Blake and in the traditional school setting, he was often in trouble of one sort or another. In the right situation he had many talents, mostly a keen mechanical ability and a hands-on curiosity about "things". I remember him displaying a restored antique John Deere tractor at school one day. Under the tutelage of a local farmer, he'd completely rebuilt this machine to original working order. When he was younger, he'd come to chat, always with questions about some piece of equipment that he'd dismantled. He died in a motorcycle accident about 2 weeks ago, only 24 years old.
Two deaths of young people from a small prairie town that I worked in for 28 years. It reminds me that you never know how long you'll have to do the things you want.
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