It's sometimes difficult to think about thankfuls when our country is in such tremendous turmoil, and while I am aware that the exercise of FINDING the thankfuls in such a dark place is kind of the entire point of the Ten Things of Thankful, it can be easier said than done.
Then a dark place hit closer to home.
Earlier this week, my sweet friend Annie was shot and killed in a freak accident. Annie and my daughter were friends since high school, where they participated in show choir together. They called themselves twin sisters, and they looked enough alike (especially in matching show choir costumes and hairstyles) that at performances, I would happily be watching my daughter perform, look closer, and then realize I had been watching Annie instead.
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| Annie and Emma Kate |
I started teaching at the university child development center where I work now a few years later. We employ students from the college to work as teacher assistants, many of them education majors. Shortly after I started working there, I was standing in the director's office when a blonde head bounced past the door, stopped, and ran back, jumping wildly up and down and shouting my name. It was Annie! She had come in for an interview, and of course, she was hired and placed in my classroom. And boy, did we have fun! Annie had a personality that wouldn't stop. She had boundless energy, a smile that lit up the room, a wicked sense of humor, and a natural gift to work with children. Annie was now not just my daughter's friend, she was my friend, too.
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| And we did it all during Covid! |
All too soon, Annie left my classroom to do her student teaching, and after she graduated, she got a job teaching first grade in a nearby town. She totally rocked it, so much that two years later, she moved to a STEAM school in that district to be the art teacher. I loved hearing her stories about the projects she was doing with the children when she and I would get together for dinner. She was a talented artist and so very creative. The children loved her, the staff loved her, the world loved her.
And in an instant, she was gone.
This has been a hard week. Trying to accept that someone so vibrant and animated, so cherished by everyone who knew her, had her life cut so short has been almost unbearable. It's not just emotional pain, but physical pain as well. I ache for her family (who sometimes watched MY daughter at show choir performances instead of Annie) and especially for the children she taught, children who cannot comprehend something that simply denies comprehension.
My thankful list this week is just this: I'm thankful to have had the privilege to have known and loved Annie. Rest peacefully, sweet friend, until we meet again.
I love you more, Annie.
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| My sweet Annie |
