Beautiful Life

We lost another student today. Sadness is, once again, overtaking my classes and tomorrow will be another tough day. This is the second student to die in our school this year. How do we make sense of things like this?

Dani*elle was born with Cy*stic Fib*rosis and lived a difficult, but normal life. She was an avid baseball player, had dreams of becoming an actress in the future and only wanted to be given the chance to grow and thrive. Last year, she received a double lu.ng tran.splant and hope embraced her family once again. This year, however, her new lungs were, once again, weakened by the disease and as she lay in a hospital bed awaiting another set of lungs, she weakened to such an extent that her little body just couldn't hold out. She died today at 3:30 p.m. A young life snatched from all of us. Unreal and so very sad.

Tomorrow, we will begin the task of listening and healing. Tomorrow a candle will burn in my classroom all day and my students and I will sit encircled; some will talk, others will simply listen and that's alright. Sometimes there are simply no words that can speak to the depths of grief. It's alright.

Please consider signing your organ donor cards. Dan*ielle died waiting for healthy lungs and it is beyond comprehensible that this young life has been snuffed out.

Too soon.

I'm sure you are wondering why I have mentioned her name. As an ambassador for Si*ck Ki*ds Hos*pital, she gave public interviews to newspapers and other organizations. Her story is out there. You can read more about her and even see a video of her here. What a beautiful life.