Deborah Sweeney, age 57, mother, grandmother, teacher, friend, fellow Catholic, died on April 30, 2009. She taught 5th grade at the elementary where both my children attended. She had been a brave widow for 25 years! She raised 4 children on her own, and put them all through college. She is the second member of our local teaching association to leave us for the Lord. She contracted a virus from school, an unknown carrier of a virus bad enough to lead to a killing pneumonia.
What is so alarming, is that she never could have imagined that this was a lethal hazard of teaching in a public school. Her dedication to the classroom, her dedication to her classroom, could lead to her death. She is the true embodiment of what it means to not only sacrifice but give up her life for others.
I wish you could see her smile. Sad, how obituaries don't seem to tell about the person's life or explain who the person was, which can only be experienced in the memories we cherish and carry in our hearts.
What is so alarming, is that she never could have imagined that this was a lethal hazard of teaching in a public school. Her dedication to the classroom, her dedication to her classroom, could lead to her death. She is the true embodiment of what it means to not only sacrifice but give up her life for others.
I wish you could see her smile. Sad, how obituaries don't seem to tell about the person's life or explain who the person was, which can only be experienced in the memories we cherish and carry in our hearts.
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