SonofV called me this morning from school, in tears. What?!?! He'd just learned that his favorite teacher of the last two years, the teacher in charge of his IEPs, in charge of the special education department at his school died yesterday of pneumonia. He was in school last week teaching classes.
I feel terrible.
I liked Mr N too. It's a serious blow to a young person, the sudden death of someone close.
My friend told me he thought that he called me first is a great sign... looking to me for clues on how to handle grief. Great...
He told me that his cousin E was also taking care of him and that he was skipping the next period, but he'd go to his class downtown as scheduled. Good man.
I'm going to prepare for a teachable moment about maturity... be ready for him--for an opportunity for some deep conversations about the meaning of life, and death. He's very sad and so am I.