Just a couple of weeks
ago I wrote about the world losing seven great and wonderful artists. Since
then we have lost two more. The founder of Jefferson Airplane, Paul Kartner and
the voice of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, Joe Alasky. That makes nine in total of
the great artists that my generation grew up with gone. But that is not why I
am writing today, it is because of someone far less well known but someone just
as powerful and someone whom I will always remember.
I am going to keep this
person anonymous but those of you who know me will understand, those of you who
do not know me will appreciate the story.
I started school late
in life. I had no idea what I wanted to be and it turned out that what I was studying
was not it either, but that is another story. It was spring of 2001 and I had
just entered the ECE course at Humber College. Everything was going fine until
May 24th weekend. My father died suddenly of a heart attack. It was
Sunday and the world had just fallen apart. I was in school and had a project
due that Tuesday morning in a course called Teaching the Young Child. Most of
the assignment was done but I did not know what to do. I called my professor
and left a voice message for her. Apparently she picked up her messages
sometime that day and she called me at home later that evening. She guided me
through to the people I needed to talk to and then wished me her deepest
condolences. From her end she began the process of paper work for me and took
over any of the on campus requirements that kept me from losing credits and
money. Her help was immeasurable. Her kindness to a virtual stranger held my
faith in humanity and gave me hope that in time things would return to a new
normal.
I returned to campus
the following September and resumed the course all over again. At some point
during the first week of school I needed to attend the ECE offices and in the
hallway met my professor. She greeted me with a huge hug and a smile that put
it all at ease for me. My nerves had been firing all week long as I had be
slotted into a different time table than she was teaching. I wanted to change
to her schedule but she would not allow me to do that. She knew I could succeed
without her as my teacher and that I would be fine. Of course I was reassured
and went forward knowing she would always be there if I needed her. I graduated
with honours. She was right, I could do it on my own. She had taught me a
lesson I did not even think I needed to learn.
Years later and after I
closed my daycare and retired my RECE I was told that this incredible lady had
been diagnosed with cancer. My heart raced and I began to secretly panic. A
cruel twist by life had encroach upon the wrong person, all I could think was
no not her. Outwardly I was as stoic as possible, inwardly I was losing a
supporter and mentor. I cried at first then told myself she was strong and
would fight. She did for several years her struggle was kept out of my mind as
I did not dare to face the reality of losing another person in my life. I
packed it away and turned my back on the child care industry, leaving behind
everything about it.
I spent this January grieving
for people I never even knew. Now when I say grieving I do not mean I wept for
them, I felt saddened that they had died and that the world had lost something,
someone, somehow. And as the death toll rose over the month and now into
February I know that I have come to a time in my life when the people I looked
up to will die. Whether that person be a world renowned artist or a professor
from Etobicoke. We will slowly loose them all. I will remain one of the last of
the standing wishing I had been one of the first and to not have watched them
all go before me. These great people, grandparents, parents, mentors, and the
artist who has entertained and taught without knowing, gone. But the people that
we grieve the most are those that have touched our souls. Whether that be from
afar or from up close there are people that leave an indelible mark upon us and
change us forever. In my case that was done with grace and I thank you for your
precious gift to me, and what it has given me today is the ability to follow my
own path with strength and confidence.
Your candle maybe
extinguished, but your flame still burns bright within our hearts.
Rest in Peace Carol.
