Monday, December 10, 2007

And growing up continues to suck...

Over the weekend the professor I would have easily picked as my favorite professor in all of college died. She had been hospitalized with liver and kidney failure and then died from complications of pneumonia. She was young. She had two small kids.

I had her for three classes. I loved that she was a very no-nonsense teacher with a great sense of humor. She didn't give anything a false sense of grandeur, but she could explain things so well.

I went to a Christmas party at her house in Munds Park my junior year. She invited all of her students to her house and had cider and cookies and I'm pretty sure she even made a ham dinner.

She was young. She had two young kids, or at least they were still in elementary school. At the Christmas party her son took a liking to me and she would always joke in the rest of her classes about how he missed me.

This semester I suggested that my supervisor work with her and her classes on a PR project. She was hospitalized about five weeks ago and another teacher had to take her classes.

The thing that bothers me the most about this is that if I wasn't working here, I never would have known. I would have had my happy memories of her classes and her family and her, and it never would have been tainted with this sick feeling that I have right now. I can't help feeling like I'm a little bit stuck in a part of my life that should have already reached its natural conclusion.

I wish I would have thanked her for making school more tolerable. I hope her kids are ok and have good people in their lives to get them through this time. I don't know what other good thoughts to think at this point.

1 comment:

Mark A Hanna said...

For everything there is a time and a season. Unfortunately, our human consciousness is only vaguely aware of the schedule that we have no control over. I sympathize with your loss, and as I have told so many others over the years, I am confident that time will replace the pain with positive memories. For as long as loved ones remain in our thoughts they are still with us. It will be nice if you find the opportunity to help the grieving children through their current suffering, but it sounds as though you've already positively influenced their lives. Each day is precious; we do well to remember that. I love you!