Braids and Tears

It was a rather sad week. Two people to whom I've grown very close are leaving. Liz, our amazing and adorable, amazingly adorable, teaching fellow is leaving to teach kids who really need her at a boarding school called The Chicken Sandwich School (or something that sounds like that). Liz has such passion for the profession of teaching and such abundant empathy for the kids. Being around her was always the perfect antidote to the cynicism which seems to permeate all schools, regardless of privilege. The braided cable mitts are for her. They were hard. There are mistakes in the final project. LOVE mistakes, I told her.

The other person is Anna, our 6th grade literature teacher, and I feel a heave of sorrow even as I type this. She has meant so much more to me than I ever expressed to her. Her talent and organization always inspired me (and I secretly copied pretty much every brilliant thing she did). Her humor and loyalty soothed me through many difficult parent confrontations. Her intense modesty veiled a keen intelligence and striking beauty for which she was never recognized enough. I quite simply loved her and depended on the sanity she provided me every day. And now she's gone. To Anna, the very person who inspired me to start knitting, I gave some hand-painted yarn, gorgeous rosewood needles, and a set of very humorous stitch markers. Oh, and an awkward hug and several "keep in touch"s. Stupid Kentucky better appreciate her. Blah. Loss.