When I arrived at school on Tuesday morning, I was greeted by my good friend Darlene in the parking lot. I was my usually friendly self, but her face was so serious. She then told me that our school's beloved tech teacher had a heart attack and died earlier that morning. We have an emergency faculty meeting before the kids came down the hall, and our principal gave us the sad news. There were so very few dry eyes.
Mr. B was an amazing man. He was so up-beat and had a contagious smile. The kids and the staff loved him We would always talk about baseball and give each other a hard time since he was a Yankee fan. I still can't believe I am referring to him in the past tense. Ugh. Since he was the tech teacher, he frequently made things for people. He made me a 2-foot long pencil with my name engraved on it. For those of you who don't know me, I love novelty items and this pencil is right up my alley.
Once the students found out, all hell broke loose. The grief was overwhelming. I am not a public crier, but it was tough to stay strong when everyone was breaking down. It broke my heart to see the kids so upset, but it was also a testament to how loved he was. He was such a happy person who never seemed to be down in the dumps, and we are trying to take his attitude and apply it to his death. I think he would want us to carry on and be happy that he lived.
I hope he is in heaven with Joe DiMaggio, snow mobiles, and all the tools one could ever want.
No comments:
Post a Comment