reflection

A precious life was celebrated today. She was a wife, a mom, a teacher and a friend. She will always be Ms Mary to me. We worked together. She was a teacher's aide in my classroom and in my team teacher's classroom for years. No matter how long we worked together, she refused to call me anything but "Mrs." my last name. No matter that she was 25 years my senior.

Ms Mary's life touched the lives of so many through her huge extended family and her 25 years of teaching. The things that stand out to me the most are her faith in a God who never left her, even when she was widowed at a young age. The same faith that made her strong and unafraid when the doctor discovered the cancer that had ravaged her body. The same God who walked with her when she traveled from chemo straight back to school because she didn't want to leave "her kids". And the same God that she came to me and asked me to pray to when the days were hard. We would stand in my classroom before or after school, holds hands, and pray to the One who never left her side. I am so thankful for these precious memories.

He was there with her when she took her last breath. He is there with her today as she worships Him without earthly limits. And, I know, that Ms Mary was able to leave this earth confident that He stood ready to comfort her family during this time.

My life is better for having known her. And I am not the only one.

I hope my life can reflect God as brightly as hers did.