Last night I found out that a person who had helped to shape my professional life had been killed. She and her husband had just retired from there professional lives and were moving down to Palm Springs California tpo live. She got out of her car in Utah and was hit by a vehicle and killed instantly. She will be missed by all that knew her and I would like to take a few minutes to explain what she meant to me. I went back to school about 10 years ago to get formal training in an area of interest to me, working with the disabled. As part of the program we had work experiences in a variety of community placements. One of them was in an elementary school, which filled me with fear because I hadn’t had much experience working with children . Sonia was the resource room teacher and we had an immediate rapport. I found out that I actually enjoyed working with her and I really enjoyed working with children. It was such a good experience that she was one of my references.
I also had exposure to her outside the work place. I am a member of the local arts board and she was on the board when I joined. She left to board in order to devote more time to her passion, which was making stained-glass pieces. She also supported the theatre group I belonged to and we always talked after she attended the performances. I know that I have only given you the barest outline of her influence on me, but I felt compelled to write this because her passing has shown me again that we have a limited time on this planet and we should make the most of it because we will never know when it will be over.
Keith, I empahthize with you. I lost two of my “mentors” this summer. One was a brilliant archaeologist, taken well before her time by cancer. The other was a Wampanoag elder who taught a lot of us how to respect the sacred.
These people touched our lives, helped make us the people we are today. Through that, we now carry part of them with us so that we may impart their wisdom to others. Carry that thought with you; it helps.
I was once quite suicidal, but nowadays I am glad to be alive most of the time, and it’s because of the people in the world that I get to see everyday and how much most people have to offer.
I don’t think you intended to brighten anyone’s day by sharing that, but you did.
Keith, your friend and mentor sounds like a wonderful person and what a blessing to have known her the way you did! ‘Balcony People’ are so rare, and precious that the world is a dimmer place without them. I’m glad that you had the opportunity that you did, so that you both had one another.
I am certain that your mentor instilled you with wonderful job skills, qualities, and a great work ethic. Practicing those every day is the greatest tribute you can pay to her.
