Goodbye

One of my students, the boy with Muscular Dystrophy, died this morning. He was seventeen. He was with his dad. I hope he had a great weekend, and was able to go out to eat at his favorite place, the Sky Dragon Buffet.

Jeff, I already miss you like crazy. I miss your sense of humor and the way you always tried to get in trouble and drive everyone nuts. I miss it when you would say something crazy that would make me laugh so hard I would cry. I loved hiding you from other staff in your wheelchair. I loved pushing your wheelchair over the bubble wrap so it would pop super loud and make you smile. I loved it when I took you for that really long walk this fall, collected leaves, and found that weird bug. You thought maybe we had discovered a new species. You said we should keep walking until we got all the way to Iowa.

It was a day of tears and laughing at the crazy things you did, and just know that we all loved you very much. We didn't think we would lose you so quickly. We hoped you would get through your senior year and graduate. It doesn't seem fair. Nothing about your life was fair. But you made the best of it. Even on Friday you were chattering away, more than you have been for weeks, and making me laugh.

What are we going to do now?